Nitram (2021)
True Crime/Portrait of a Mass Murderer
A true crime film based on Martin Bryant who went on a shooting spree, killing 35 people in Port Arthur, Australia in 1996
Australian Cinema
Films have been made in Australia since 1906 and sporadically since. However, the true growth of Australian Cinema came from the 1970s onwards. During this period, it exploded with a considerable outpouring of films that gained international acclaim.
Not long after the emergence of Australian cinema as its own identity, it also begat a deluge of exploitation films and a number of genre works – the so-called Ozploitation cycle. This had some enormous international successes most notedly with the trend-setting post-apocalyptic action film Mad Max 2 (1981), and other works. The Ozploitation cycle died away by the mid-1990s but Australia still produces a number of genre works.
Recurrent themes within Australian cinema include the relationship between man and the Outback, which is often seen as having mystical, overwhelming power or be lurking with dangers. Adjacent to these is the popularity of the Crocodile Dundee films about the superiority of a man with knowledge of bushcraft. The mythology of the native Aborigines also features in some films – for which see Aborigine Mythology.
Australian filmmakers of note include Shane Abbess, Bill Bennett, Jamie Blanks, James Bogle, Terry Bourke, Rolf de Heer, Everett de Roche, Justin Dix, Colin Eggleston, Richard Franklin, Anthony I. Ginnane, Rod Hardy, Mark Hartley, Zak Hilditch, Stephen Hopkins, Jennifer Kent, Justin Kurzel, Greg McLean, George Miller, George Miller (ii), Philippe Mora, Russell Mulcahy, Chris Noonan, Phillip Noyce, Alex Proyas, Kimble Rendall, Kiah Roache-Turner, Yahoo Serious, The Spierig Brothers, Andrew Traucki, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Leigh Whannell, Peter Weir, Simon Wincer and Karl Zwicky.
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008)
Australian Exploitation Cinema Documentary
Hilarious and entertaining documentary about the Australian exploitation film that flourished between the late 1970s and 80s. The film delves into an arena of forgotten films and tells their stories with a great deal of detail
Observance (2015)
Surveillance, Paranoia and Infection
A man surveilling a woman finds strange goings-on and becomes infected by something. This is essentially Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation played as a horror film; alas, while this does a fine job in the build-up, it lacks a third act that explains anything at all
On the Beach (2000)
The Nuclear Holocaust
TV mini-series remake of the 1959 nuclear war film. With no longer the need to make messages as in the original, the story has been expanded out with a lush romantic sweep
100 Bloody Acres (2012)
Australian Backwoods Brutality Comedy
An Australian Backwoods Brutality comedy, which amusingly inverts the genre’s clichés, not dissimilar to Tucker and Dale vs Evil
OtherLife (2017)
Programmed Artificial Memories
Australian SF film about the development of a set of eyedrops that allow the recipient to experience a set of preprogrammed virtual memories. The film does nothing with the idea beyond rehashing Total Recall-like reality games
Out of the Body (1989)
Astral Killer
A cheapie from cult Ozploitation director Brian Trenchard-Smith about a man having clairvoyant visions of an astral killer
Outback Vampires (1987)
Vampires in the Australian Outback Comedy
One of the most head-scratchingly bizarre efforts among the great Ozploitation fad – a comedy about vampires in an Australian Outback town
The Pack (2015)
Killer Dogs
Rather effective Australian killer dog film. The film streamlines anything extraneous in the plot and gets down to the business at hand of a family living in the Outback being terrorised by a pack of wild dogs, at which you have to admit it generates a reasonable hand of tension
Patrick (1978)
Psychic Coma Patient
Fine Australian from Richard Franklin that jumps aboard the popularity of Carrie concerning a coma patient who demonstrates psychic powers
Patrick (2013)
Psychic Coma Patient
This remake of the Australian classic about a coma patient with psychokinetic powers is astonishingly bad. Richard Franklin’s stylish scares are replaced by laughably overwrought sequences
Paws (1997)
Talking Dog
Australian-made children’s film about a kid who creates a computer program so his dog can talk where it then becomes voiced by Billy Connolly
The Phantom Treehouse (1984)
Animation/Boy's Adventure on a Magic Island
Australian animation about a boy’s adventure on an island amid pirates, inventors and magic creatures that in its better moments suggests a collision between Peter Pan and Pufnstuf. Unfortunately, the film is made with a budget that must have been well within four figures
The Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Unexplained Disappearance
Voted the Best Australian film of all time, Peter Weir creates an incredibly haunting mystery about four girls who disappear while on said picnic. A film full of unexplained answers that remains just beyond your fingertips
Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018)
Unexplained Disappearance
The Picnic at Hanging Rock with its hauntingly unsolved mystery is considered one of the greatest Australian films of all time; this mini-series in six one-hour parts drags every beat of the story out and pads the slim original with so many other character mini-dramas and backstories that the mystery is drowned out
The Pirate Movie (1982)
Gonzo Pirate Musical
Widely rididculed attempt to market Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance as a teen pop film by way of The Blue Lagoon. A mind-spinning film that seems to have no limit on how silly it is prepared to be, including numerous anachronistic contemporary pop culture in-jokes and fourth-wall breaking gags
Plague (2014)
Australian Zombie Film
A standout Australian-made zombie film that breathes some life into an overworked genre, focusing on the tensions among the survivors as they try to fend off the dead while at siege on a farm
The Plumber (1978)
Sinister Handyman
Very odd early Peter Weir film about a strange plumber who moves in and takes over cautious Judy Morris’s apartment
The Portable Door (2023)
Apprentice in a Magical Company
A story about an apprentice at a mysterious company that deals with magic, this could well serve as a fix for those wanting something more of the Harry Potter franchise
Predestination (2014)
Time Paradox
An exceptional time travel film, one of the best to emerge in some time. Adapted from a classic Robert Heinlein story, the pleasure of the film all comes in seeing its twists and turns come together into the most ingenious temporal paradox ever conceived
Prey (2004)
Australian Monster Movie
Obscure Australian film about people being hunted by a mythical creature known as The Yowie
Primitive War (2025)
Dinosaurs in the Vietnam War
Essentially Platoon meets Jurassic Park. A surprisingly watchable film that places a unit of soldiers in the midst of the Vietnam War up against dinosaurs where things get bloody and ferocious
The Punisher (1990)
Comic-Book Vigilante
Dolph Lundgren’s The Punisher is minus his trademark t-shirt and the film takes considerable liberties with the source material but this is a hugely entertaining action comic-book of a film with hilariously tongue-in-cheek dialogue
Razorback (1984)
Killer Boar
Russell Mulcahy, a director fresh from success on the early days of MTV, returned to his native Australia to make this extraordinary variant on the Animals Attack film. Mulcahy piles on amazing photography, turning the landscape into something otherwordly
Reckless Kelly (1993)
Gonzo Bank Robber Comedy
The second of the films directed, written by and starring Yahoo Serious where he plays a descendant of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly who discovers fame in Hollywood
The Reef (2010)
Swim Through Shark-Infested Waters
Gripping Australian survival horror film about a shipwrecked party who have to make a twelve mile swim through shark-infested waters
The Reef: Stalked (2022)
Survival in Shark-Infested Waters
Andrew Traucki, the director of the standout killer crocodile film Black Water, makes a sequel to his earlier grippingly intense work about people trapped in shark-infested waters
Reign in Darkness (2002)
Vampire Action
Australian vampire action that feels like a single pose that has been inspired by too many watchings of The Matrix
Relic (2020)
Mysterious Happenings in a House
A beautiful slow burn of a film that avoids almost any labels one tries to apply. It could be a film about dementia, it starts out seeming like a work about a haunted house but refuses to adhere to any of the tropes and instead heads for a remarkable and unique place of its own
The Return of Captain Invincible (1983)
Superhero Spoof
Witty and overlooked parody of the superhero with Alan Arkin as a retired superhero trying to get back into the game. Made before superhero films became big and has a number of charms that were ahead of its time
Road Train (2010)
Supernatural Killer Truck
Australian film that takes a big bite out of Duel with a group of people being pursued through the Outback by a truck-trailer that appears to be fueled by human blood
Roadgames (1981)
Road Movie Psycho-Thriller
A standout Australian psycho-thriller with Stacy Keach as a truck driver who believes he has seen a killer on the highway. Director Richard Franklin creates a series of astonishing set-pieces.
Rogue (2007)
Killer Crocodile
The second film from Greg McLean, made directly after the hit of Wolf Creek. In this tale of a killer crocodile. McLean borrows more than a few pages from Jaws to create an incredibly gruelling and intense ride
The Rover (2014)
Socially Collapsed Near Future
Impressive Australian film that recalls the Mad Max films. Rather than action spectacle, this feels like Mad Max as rewritten by Cormac McCarthy wherein a collapsed future echoes a beautifully written exploration of the soul of a man in a violent world
Run Rabbit Run (2023)
Possible Possession by a Missing Girl
Sarah Snook stars in an Australian ghost story in which her daughter seems to become possessed by the sister who went missing years ago
Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child (2016)
Planetary Adventure
A film naming itself after an entire genre either has massive ambition or huge pretensions. Beyond the grandiose title, this is not much more than a better budgeted version of an 80s planetary adventure
The Shadow of Mary Poppins (2002)
Mary Poppins' Creator Documentary
Documentary about Mary Poppins creator P.L. Travers that delves into the questions of her secretive past and often fictionalised biography, while also covering the making of the Disney film
Shirley Thompson Versus the Aliens (1972)
Gonzo Alien Visitors Film
One of the other films from Jim Sharman, director of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a gonzo comedy where alien visitors bring a statue of the Duke of Edinburgh to life
The Silver Brumby (1993)
The Lives of Horses
Adaptation of a classic Australian children’s story about a breed of mythic horses. Starring an unknown Russell Crowe.
Sky Bandits (1985)
Flyer Adventure/Alien Artefacts
Preposterous Australian-made Indiana Jones ripoff involving alien artifacts and Easter Island that would be a bad movie classic if it were not so absurdly entertaining
Snapshot (1979)
Stalker Psycho-Thriller
Trashy Australian psycho-stalker film set in the world of fashion modelling that was bizarrely passed off as a copy of Halloween in the US
Snowtown (2011)
True-Life Serial Killings
Underrated and quite brilliant film about a series of true-life Australian serial killings, this has an extraordinary dangerousness in the way it observes highly disturbing things with calm detachment
Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds (1987)
Post-Apocalyptic Film
The first film from Alex Proyas who once seemed a director of great promise with The Crow and Dark City, this seems to be trying to create a Mad Max post-apocalyptic film as a student art film
Storm Warning (2007)
Australian Backwoods Brutality
An Australian-made variant on the Backwoods Brutality cycle where a whitebread couple on a sailing trip are tortured by hicks. Nothing beyond the cliches or remarkable about this.
Strangers (1990)
Female Stalker
Australian thriller that is a blatant copy of Fatal Attraction
Suing the Devil (2011)
Satan on Trial in Court
A Christian-made film based on the intriguing idea of Satan on trial in a courtroom. A film that in its bad acting, laughable dialogue and lack of conviction rivals The Room in bad movie stakes. The usually worthwhile Malcolm McDowell, who for some reason also produces, gives one of his worst performances
The Survivor (1981)
Haunting/Deathdream
Australian-made adaptation of a James Herbert novel with Robert Powell as a airline pilot who is haunted following a crash. In the director’s chair, actor David Hemmings kills all atmosphere
Talk to Me (2022)
Occult Artefact
An Australian film has been getting some great word of mouth, a teen horror that stands it head and shoulders above its contemporaries
Terminus (2015)
Alien Artefact/Prophecy of Nuclear War
Australian SF film about a man’s discovery of an alien artifact that helps regenerate body parts and gives him prophetic dream warnings of a coming nuclear war. An odd little film more than it is necessarily one that keeps you interested or dramatically engaged
That Eye, The Sky (1994)
Ambiguous Miraculous Visitor
Strange Australian film set in the Outback with Peter Coyote as an ambiguous stranger who claims to have been sent from God
These Final Hours (2013)
End of the World
Excellent Australian End of the World film. Think On the Beach by way of Last Night. The visions of social collapse are astonishingly raw, while the centre of the film is the emotional journey between a man and a child
Thirst (1979)
Medical Vampires
Modest Australian film where Chantal Contouri is introduced to a secret vampire society that keeps human beings as cattle
Those Dear Departed (1987)
Ghostly Vengeance Black Comedy
An excruciatingly unfunny Australian comedy about a man murdered by his wife returned as a ghost to bring her to justice
Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)
Djinn Appears
George Miller of Mad Max fame makes a fantastical and charming film where djinn Idris Elba appears to Tilda Swinton
Time Addicts (2023)
Time Paradox
This is an Australian film where two crystal meth addicts find a drug that transports them through time. While keeping itself contained to a single location, this emerges out into a cleverly constructed time paradox
The Time Guardian (1987)
War Across Time
An Australian entry in the 1980s time travel film fad featuring Carrie Fisher engaged in a war across time in a time-travelling city
Together (2025)
Couple Physically Fuse Together
A Body Horror film that creates some undeniably ick effect where Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a couple who experience an infection that causes their bodies to start fusing into one whenever they touch
Tomorrow When the War Began (2010)
Australia Invaded/Teenagers Fight Back
An Australian version of Red Dawn – prettily mounted but feels more like Dawson’s Creek Goes to War than it has does a realistic war film
The Tunnel (2011)
Found Footage/Creatures in the Underground
Construed as a Found Footage version of The Descent or perhaps more so of Creep about a camera crew venturing into the tunnels beneath Sydney, Australia, this follows where others have gone before and fails to produce much in the way of jolts
Tunnel Vision (1994)
Psycho-Sexual Thriller
A poorly made Australian copy of Basic Instinct where a detective and his partner are investigated a serial killer. All the heated sexuality comes out tamely
Turkey Shoot (1983)
Future Prison/Human Bloodsports
Ridiculous, splatter-heavy Australian-made film about a prison camp where prisoners are offered their freedom in a run while pursued by armed hunters
Turkey Shoot (2014)
Human Hunting/Near Future Reality TV Show
Remake of the Ozploitation film where the original’s Most Dangerous Game scenario set in a dystopian future is lamely rewritten as a reality tv show and another Hunger Games ripoff. The original was fairly terrible; this has a lack of conviction in most regards that makes it even worse
The 25th Reich (2012)
Time Travel, UFOs and Nazi-Ruled Alternate Future
Time travel, Nazis in UFOs and a Nazi-ruled alternate timeline, giant robot spiders – ok, I’m sold. A surprisingly good little film where the fact that this is also made on a low budget and with a good deal of conceptual constraint makes it all the more creative an effort
2067 (2020)
Time Portal
Australian film in which Kodi Smit-McPhee heads through a time portal to save a polluted world resulting in a time paradox that ties back to his childhood. This had promise but badly lets down on its premise
Undead (2003)
Zombie Splatter and Alien Abductions
Appealingly quirky homemade zombie film that launched the career of Australia’s Spierig Brothers. The two demonstrate a considerable inventivity when it comes to the visual and makeup effects, which they created all themselves
Uninhabited (2010)
Haunted Island
A couple on a getaway to an uninhabited island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef find the island may be haunted
Upgrade (2018)
A.I Transforms a Wheelchair-Ridden Man Into a Fighting Machine
Leigh Whannell, James Wan’s BFF and co-writer on the Saw and
Visitors (2003)
Yachtboard Ghost Story
Strong return to genre material for Australian director Richard Franklin with Radha Mitchell as a yachtswoman in a round the world race facing ghosts on board that may well all be in her imagination
The Water Diviner (2014)
Post-World War I Drama/Magical Realism
Russell Crowe turns director and, as is the case with actors turned director, feels the need to take up an epic historical subject – the aftermath of World War I (albeit with some Magical Realist elements). Crowe wields all the epic flourish and polish, even if the film never truly moves one
We Bury the Dead (2024)
Zombie Film
The zombie film underwent a major revival in the 2000s but by the mid-2020s a horde of low-budget copycats has exhausted most creative possibilities. This shows there is still some originality to be found
The Well (1997)
Body in the Well/Psychological Horror
An incredibly spooky film about two woman on an Australian outback farm that believe they are haunted by a dead body in the well
Winchester (2018)
Real-Life Haunted House
Winchester House with its eccentric designs and strange history is reputedly one of America’s most haunted locales. From Australia’s Spierig Brothers who made the likes of Daybreakers and Predestination, this attempts to tell its story but emerges as far less than it could have been
Wolf Creek (2005)
Australian Backwoods Brutality
Making dubious claim to be based on real-life, this courted considerable controversy with its violence. Essentially an Australian Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Greg McLean readily pushes things to extremes
Wolf Creek 2 (2013)
Australian Backwoods Brutality
Greg McLean and John Jarratt return to the Australian Backwood Brutality saga of Wolf Creek for a second outing that is just as effective as the first. McLean often pushes the material into black humour and creates at least one sequence that makes for genuinely uncomfortable watching
Wyrmwood: Apocalypse (2021)
Zombie Apocalypse
Sequel to the cult Australian zombie film, this refines the first film and exists as even more of a visual comic-book – all that seems missing is dialogue that comes in comic balloons
Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead (2014)
Zombie Apocalypse
Australian zombie film that comes with a hyperactive fierceness and energy that reminds of early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. On the minus side, the zombie genre is now so creatively strip-mined that the film never offers anything original
You’ll Never Find Me (2023)
Psychological Games Between Two Strangers
Australian film where a girl turns up at the trailer home of a recluse. A series of tense psychological games ensue where it becomes apparent neither of them are being truthful
Young Einstein (1988)
Gonzo Comedy/Alternate Albert Einstein
Bizarrely surreal comedy directed by and starring Yahoo Serious who plays Albert Einstein as an Australian who discovers surfing and rock