Justin Kurzel’s latest film Nitram has recently been announced for Glasgow Film Festival. The film studies the events leading up to the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in an attempt to understand why and how the atrocity occurred. It’s a subject that feels rather similar to Kurzel’s debut, Snowtown. That film was released in 2011 and chronicled the killing spree of a group of men between the years of 1992 and 1999. Now Kurzel’s first feature is available in the UK via the team at 101 Films and we’ve had the chance to review it.
Words synonymous with Snowtown would be bleak, depressing, and unflinching, meaning it is not a movie for the faint of heart. The real-life inspiration for Snowtown is chilling; the novel ‘Killing for Pleasure’ by Debi Marshall forms the basis for Kurzul and Shaun Grant’s script. Right from the onset Snowtown is unrelenting in its viciousness as Kurzel doesn’t sugarcoat the torment that Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) is suffering through. Jamie lives with his two brothers and his mother. The father figure in the household is whomever his mum’s latest boyfriend is. The first to fill this mantle is Jeffrey, but after his sexual abuse of Jamie and his brothers is revealed, he is quickly removed. His replacement, John (Daniel Henshall), instantly captures the attention of Jamie, but has his own dark secret – he’s a serial killer. Before long, Jamie finds himself wrapped up in the murders.
Australia is a country associated with warm sunny beaches and laid-back attitudes, but neither of these will be found within Snowtown. All the characters are downtrodden by a combination of their social standing, lack of cash, or trauma-filled home lives; all are tightly coiled. There’s an absence of light created by the icy blue colour palette. It sucks all opportunities for warmth to seep into the film and perfectly captures the chilling and numbness of the environment. The muted tones feed further into the echo chamber or despair that taints everything else. Equally unsettling is the combination of Jed Kurzel’s disquieting score and Frank Lipson’s brutal and unflinching sound design. Each of these elements threaten to overwhelm the quiet speech as it intrudes upon the viewer much as the violence takes over Jamie’s world.
Although Kurzel would go on to helm Assassin’ Creed, there is a lot of work here that lays the foundations for some of his other more indie spirited projects. Snowtown possesses elements that clearly moulded the framework for Kurzel’s most recent film release, True History of the Kelly Gang, and with Nitram on the horizon, Kurzel clearly has a taste for unrelenting true crime biopics. The accompanying extras on this special edition disc dig further into Snowtown’s history and legacy, and offer plenty to digest for those brave enough to explore.
Stark, gloomy, and fuelled with anguish and despair, Snowtown is an unrelenting film that once watched, will never be forgotten.
Snowtown
Summary
Snowtown is one of the bleakest and uncomfortable films to sit through. It will take a certain type of special and mature person to be able to get through the piece without it overwhelming them.
Snowtown is available to own on Blu-ray via 101 Films now.
