The Snowtown Murders

Saw The Snowtown Murders, an extremely difficult film about a large sort of teenager living in a poor family. His parents are divorced, he and his brothers play video games and ride bikes, making what fun they can. A squashy male babysitter takes photographs of them. Later on violent, fraternal molestation is revealed. Over these sordid events, a drum on the soundtrack beats solemnly as nervy pianos and guitars stutter out jangling tunes. This at first seems like a more sinister sort of Gummo, wallowing in poverty and misery, but (unlike Gummo) reeling away from it in horror, sickened by this depravity. This is not very cool, mind you, because people do live like this and some of them are struggling but happy. But this is not that kind of film

Into this land of squalor and despair steps a new father-figure, John, with his cherubic smile and goofy, Pavarotti-like beard. He is stern but loving, forcing the boy's brothers to eat their vegetables and showering them with gifts and affection. He even teaches the pedophile babysitter a lesson and then teaches him another lesson and another lesson and another and another. This over-the-top vengeance is our first hint at what is to come. John sees himself as a vigilante. The only difference between him and a policeman, he says, is a badge. And anyway, against pedophiles, what excess is not justifiable? Soon the protagonist is helping out with the tortures and murders which ensue.

This is a very sinister film. It's a sort of Faustian story, with the puckish John being the horrible Mephistophiles and the protagonist gaining a devil's bargain of acceptance at the cost of his comfort and of his ability to live with himself. This is not a film for the faint of heart. You see someone get tortured to death. It's awful. The story is compelling and riveting, aggressive and arresting. It's a psychological horror however. There's never a big bang to relieve the tension, only soft voices issuing commands, or gasping for breath. A really frightening film.