‘Weapons’ Director Zach Cregger Was Inspired By This Australian Horror Classic
If you’ve already seen Zach Cregger’s Weapons, a horrifying and gripping film which Dread Central’s Josh Korngut dubbed “an instant horror classic,” there’s a good chance you’re now out to do two things: Watch Weapons again, and look for other horror films that evoke some of the same haunting vibes.
Fortunately, Cregger himself is here to help with that. In a recent chat with Letterboxd about various movies and their influence on Weapons and his filmmaking style, the writer/director named one of the greatest Australian films ever made as a key piece of the Weapons puzzle. Released in 1975, Picnic at Hanging Rock remains a spellbinding drama, as well as an essential piece of folk horror with traces of the cosmic lurking in the shadows.
“Picnic at Hanging Rock is so eerie and haunting, and it’s about the bizarre behavior of children and a disappearance, and you’re left to just grapple with why,” Cregger explained. “It’s an upsetting movie. It’s hard for me not to think about that movie when I think about [Weapons].”
What’s the Film About?
Directed by Peter Weir, a titan of Aussie cinema who was then best known for his cult classic The Cars That Ate Paris, Picnic at Hanging Rock is based on Joan Lindsay’s novel of the same name, and features a setup that’s quite similar to the way Weapons opens. It’s the story of a group of schoolgirls at a rural private academy who head out, on Valentine’s Day, to have the title picnic at the title Australian landmark. During what’s meant to be a day of fun out in nature, though, several of the girls go climbing up the rock and simply vanish, plunging the entire school into mystery, terror, and strange happenings.
Like Weapons, it’s a horror film spurred by a mysterious group disappearance, and like Weapons, it does not offer easy answers, as it’s more concerned about how the survivors process the mystery than the mystery itself. It’s an essential piece of the Aussie horror scene even without the comparison to a recent hit, but if you’ve seen Weapons and you want another horror film about a strange vanishing, this is a must-watch.
An Iconic Piece Of Horror Cinema
But Picnic at Hanging Rock does not simply hold up as a piece of horror history. Even 50 years on, in a narrative set decades before it was made, the film holds dark magic in every frame, from the facelike shapes in the rock itself to the mysteries of female sexuality, coming of age, and self-destructions it evokes. It’s been hailed as a vital piece of folk horror as a global cinematic phenomenon, and it’s still considered one of the best films ever to be made in Australia.
You can find it on HBO Max and The Criterion Channel right now, and I highly recommend immersing yourself in its dark spell, particularly during the summer months.
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