In an effort to make a dark pedophile/serial killer foreign drama reach as wide a net as possible here in the states, IFC Films has retitled Justin Kurzel’s Snowtown to the obvious The Snowtown Murders. Nonetheless, the film based on the 1999 Australian murder spree is one of the best year and made the top spot on our must-see movies of the month.
We’ve got the US trailer here via Apple and it doesn’t shy away from the disturbing nature of this thing. It is a tough watch but I was glued to my chair the entire time. Animal Kingdom comparisons will be tossed around, but this is a more accomplished look at lost innocence. I highly recommend checking it out in limited release and one can see the trailer below for the film starring Daniel Henshall, Lucas Pittaway and Louise Harris.
Synopsis:
Based on horrifying crimes discovered in Snowtown, Australia in 1999, THE SNOWTOWN MURDERS is Justin Kurzel’s directorial debut, a stark journey into a brutal subculture of suspicion, addiction and violence. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes’ Critics Week, the film follows Elizabeth Harvey (Louise Harris), a mother raising her three boys in a poor suburb. After her latest boyfriend displays pedophilic tendencies, she takes up with a new man, hoping for security but instead welcoming an even more vicious predator into her home. John Bunting (Daniel Henshall) is the moral compass of a self-appointed neighborhood watch who, fueled by cigarettes and beer, cast judgments on those living around them. Bunting enlists his crew in acts of sadistic vigilantism on those he considers deviants, and in the process takes Elizabeth’s son Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) under his wing. THE SNOWTOWN MURDERS is an uncompromising film focused on the relationship between vulnerable teenager and a father figure who is revealed to be the worst kind of bully.
Snowtown hits limited theaters March 2nd.