Les crimes de Snowtown

16 year-old Jamie lives with his mother and abusive brothers. He is taken by his mother's new lascivious boyfriend. John and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watch takes Jamie under their wings. They drive out the boyfriend. The relationship leads to a spree of torture and murder.

This is an Australian film based on true events. This is a highly disturbing movie. To say that they are white trash is to insult white trash. The rampant homophobia is shocking, but then it gets much much worst. I feel that I have to warn that it dives head first into pedophilia and serial torture murders. It is truly soul grindingly gruesome. It gets really tiring to one's being. I do like the atmosphere in the movie although it does drag at times. It is a tough watch, and good only for people who are willing.

Snowtown follows the experience of young Jamie Vlassakis as he partakes in the infamous 'bodies in the barrels' murders. Director Justin Kurzel has created a film that gradually pulls away the illusion of justified vigilantism to reveal the sadistic and evil core of John Bunting and his co-accused. The rare scenes of violence have such a profound impact that they are difficult to witness, the imagery of the Australian welfare suburb is captured with such florescent realism that you can almost taste the atmosphere. While at times fragmented, Snowtown is a rare and expertly crafted biopic that will tear at your senses and stun you into submission

Despite this film being brilliantly written and acted, it is so grim that I don't think I could ever bear to watch it again. I've done a fair bit of research into the Snowtown murders and if anything this film plays down the torture aspect. Knowing this happened and what went on in real life was probably even worse, it makes this a very challenging watch.

Snowtown is probably the most disturbing movie I have ever seen. (Note: To back that statement up, I have watched most so called 'torture-porn' flicks, including hard-edged foreign stuff like Martyrs and Audition.)

Unlike the vast majority of horror films, Snowtown depicts torture and murder in a way that is almost documentary-like - nothing is sensationalized, which makes it all the more horrific. You are essentially a fly-on-the-wall during a real-life murder. The strangulation scene in the bath tub is almost unwatchable - and it seems to go on forever.

I found it incredibly hard to watch and it has seriously shaken me to my core. Cinema is supposed to affect us, and Snowtown certainly did, which is why I've given it 10/10.

Still makes me shudder when I think of it. One of the most intensely distressing movies I have ever seen. Seriously raw stuff. Chilling in its depiction of the Snowtown murders. Recommended viewing, but not for the squeamish.

The acting is so credible that I feel like I am really in the home of these working class Australians that I have known in my childhood in the 1990s. This is a dark, dark film, but so it should be. It sticks in my mind when I think of the deepest, most nihilistic chasms of this world, and whatever we do in life, that place is always there. The crimes begin with a grain of righteous intent and spiral down into that deepest sea trench. Recommended if you can face it.