Review – Picnic at Hanging Rock

I’ve griped many times in the past about the horror genre’s almost complete lack of subtlety and nuance. So I feel like a real idiot for making the opposite complaint about this old Peter Weir movie. Nonetheless, this production relies too heavily on eerie atmosphere alone. The story – to the extent that there is one – is about a group of schoolgirls who vanish off the face of the earth at the title event. I loved Weir’s gutsy decision to avoid offering any inkling of an explanation for the disappearance, and some of the subsequent events add fuel to the spooky fire. Unfortunately, just as many later scenes seem to have no direct relevance to the main plot and little particular importance on their own. The final score is approximately one third wonderful horror movie and two thirds intensely boring period drama. And without watching the whole thing carefully you won’t be able to sort one from the other. Mildly amusing