366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 209

The Date: April 26

The Movie: Wake in Fright (1971)

What Is It?: Ted Kotcheff transforms Australia into a horror environment twenty times more terrifying than Dracula’s castle. It’s a nasty portrayal of outback culture with the inhabitants cast as soul-suckers more relentless than Romero’s zombies. The kangaroo hunt, which involves real hunting of real kangaroos by real drunk hunters, may be the most disturbing sequence I’ve ever seen. Watch at your own risk. You’ll be waking in fright for months after watching this brutal, unforgettable film.

Why Today?: Today is Hug an Australian Day!

Cult Club: 'Wake in Fright' (1971)

In this feature, Psychobabble looks at classic cult items beyond Horror and Rock & Roll. 

Wake in Fright is a horror movie without the things that define a horror movie. There are no ghosts, though it is terribly haunting. There are no serial killers, unless you count the drunken hunters who wantonly slaughter kangaroos in perhaps the most disturbing scene I’ve ever had the displeasure to watch. There are no monsters, unless a town can be a monster. That town is Bundanyabba, or “The Yabba” as the locals call it. They are the demons who do the monster’s bidding. They stupefy its victims with beer. They drain its victims’ resources with sub-moronic gambling events. Then they go in for the kill with a methodical but swift dehumanization process.