Snowtown

The press junket and first wave of critical notices built Snowtown up as a throat ripper that will cause you nightmares. That didn't do it any favours as per expectation levels for the horror enthusiast. However, this is a superb piece of film making, a real gritty and grainy deconstruction of the human condition gone sour. As with all films of this type that are based on real life incidents, it pays to read up on the facts if you be so inclined.

Debut director Justin Kurzel doesn't shirk from the horrors of the case, but skillfully he doesn't bang everyone over the head with shock tactics to grab the attention. It's a relentlessly bleak picture, there's a continuous build of impending dread, of human devastation wrung out by a master manipulator (Daniel Henshall as John Bunting superb), the depressing story told through the eyes of the simple and confused Jamie Vlassakis (Lucas Pittaway).

Not to be watched if one is looking to be cheered up! But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be sought out as essential cinema. It's a strong and potent film, worthy of inspection by adults who understand that not all film is about entertainment. 8.5/10

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

This is not like any other film I've seen before, I think that it would be an understatement to say that this film was chilling and eye opening. This film terrified me, and amazed me in it's brilliance.

I don't know where to begin, but when I think back to this film I remember how I'd felt while watching it, which is also something I can't even begin to describe. I never write reviews but for this one I felt I should just because I believe that a lot of people pass on watching films that don't have a rating above 7/10. But this film, definitely deserves to be watched.

At the time when I watched the film, I only found out afterwards that it was a true story. And you won't believe how little difference that made to how I already felt, because it was that powerful already. I felt terrified, and I'm not the one to be 'scared' easily, but you should've seen what it did to people who do get scared. This film like many other brilliant films has left me with something to think about afterwards, but unlike any other movie I've ever seen before, Snowtown gave me a slap across the face to open my eyes to an obvious truth. And it felt harsh to realize it, as it probably did for anyone who's seen Snowtown. It's that murderers exist, and yes it's no surprise, but this film showed me just how desensitized we all are to murders, serial killers. That's why watching this film felt like I'd experienced something. It's like that same exciting feeling you get when you watch Avatar and you're 'experiencing' the 3-D aspects, but for this you're exhilarated and experiencing something so f"cked up and real. It made "This Is England" look like a Disney film. This is actually a quote that seemed to best summarize what we all felt as me and about 8 other people discussed the film outside the cinema. And we could still hear a hint of fear in our laughter then.

It wasn't just another film. I've been inspired by how realistic the scenes are, I can't imagine that it was just scripted scenes, it truly felt all real. The actor that played the killer was the most terrifying character or man I've ever seen on film. You must watch this, a lot of people have become obsessed with this film, and it definitely deserves a higher rating.

It is quite a well crafted film and the concepts it presents are quite disturbing. It shows the killers to be very cold, calculating and generally indifferent in the way the murders unfold.

I don't think it will be a very accessible film for most cinema goers, as the style and tone are very depressing. It is a very simple plot on the surface but the way it presents the characters is sometimes quite confusing, and i found it quite hard to follow who all the characters were and how they were related. It is appropriately photographed, the production design is correctly sparse and bleak and the soundtrack is very effective.

I agree with the other people who have written reviews who say that it is good to get some background on the murders as I watched this without any and was confused in parts. What is interesting is that the film makers either assumed that you would have this knowledge, or accepted that the plot would only partially be known. In that sense we really are like witnesses who aren't let in on all the facts - in a strange way keeping some of the plot details leads to the sense of claustrophobia in the film.

Snowtown is an excellent example of the genre of gritty Australian realism which includes films like The Boys and Idiot Box.

This reminded me a lot of The Boys in building tension slowly and I think the rhythm of the film was spot on. It was also similar in the sense that it suggested that poverty and a lack of opportunity lead to violence (not necessarily for Bunting but probably for the other characters). But I think this just reinforces prejudices about poverty that middle class people have.

I think that Jamie was a very good choice as a main character because he clearly had the most complex relationship with Bunting and what he was doing. As the audience we were also invited to have that relationship then

I was pretty surprised that the film only had an MA rating rather than R, particularly given the nature of the violence portrayed.