by A.J.
This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, for the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.
Night 2: Mystery Night
“That’s just the trouble. Nobody knows what happened.”
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) is not technically a horror
film but it is a haunting and unsettling film. It is a mystery with an eerie
tone, a mixture of ethereal beauty and dread that lingers long after the
credits roll. There is no psycho-killer or monster and only the vaguest hint of
the supernatural. The horror of Picnic at Hanging Rock comes from the
slow realization by the characters and audience that no solution exists. The existence of the unknown is brought to the forefront, and fear of the unknown is one of the oldest fears in humankind.
To describe the plot of Picnic at Hanging Rock is, in
one way, to give away all that happens in the movie. In Australia on St.
Valentine’s Day, 1900, a group of students and their chaperones from an
all-girls boarding school go on a picnic to Hanging Rock. Some of the girls go
exploring the Rock, a series of stony volcanic formations jutting up out of
the earth. Three of the girls and one of the teachers go missing. One of them
is found a week later completely unscathed but with no memory of what happened. The rest are never seen
again. However, this description does not do justice
to what makes this such a beguiling and unique mystery
picture.
Every cinematic element (cinematography, score, sound
design, editing, performances, costumes) works to sustain a subtle, surreal
atmosphere without calling attention to technique. The two most striking and
unforgettable elements of Picnic at Hanging Rock are the sun-drenched,
soft-focus cinematography by Russell Boyd, who won a BAFTA award for his work,
and the pan flute score which, together, cast a big part of the movie’s
spell. Cinematographer Boyd hung a wedding veil over the camera lens to create a
diffused backlit look. Sunlight catches in the girls’ hair and white dresses
and seems to make them glow. For certain close ups director Peter Weir had the
actors remain completely still and unblinking while they were filmed in slow
motion. The result is almost an imperceptible effect that the brain cannot
immediately interpret but the eye can detect and knows something is
amiss.
The potential of the supernatural exists throughout Picnic at
Hanging Rock and the rock itself seems to be potentially supernatural or
paranormal. On the carriage ride to Hanging Rock the girls talk about its
ancient age and how it has been waiting for them for millions of years. There
seem to be faces in the rock and the watches of one of the teachers and the
carriage driver stop at exactly noon. Somehow all the most logical explanations
of what happened to the girls (kidnapping and murder, trapped in a crevice)
also feel like the most unlikely explanations. A definitive concrete
explanation wouldn’t just be a disappointment, as the solutions to most
mysteries are, it would completely ruin the spell that the film has cast. Even
if you figured out why they disappeared you would still have to figure out
where they went.
Picnic at Hanging Rock feels like it is based on a
true story but it is not. It is adapted from a novel by Joan Lindsay who based
the story on a series of dreams. Like a dream, a big part of the movie’s
appeal is the many interpretations and theories that can be applied. The
emerging sexuality of the adolescent girls, the repressive nature of the
boarding school, the imposition of English customs and culture in a place where
they do not belong, the ancient nature of the rock, the young age of girls are
all important themes that seem to hint at a reason for disappearance. Much has been written on these themes and others and more
could be written still. This is part of why Picnic at Hanging Rock lingered despite its negative reception in 1975.
For me, the most important scene is a conversation between a
male employee of the school and the old groundskeeper. The younger man insists
that an explanation will be found and lists theories, some logical, some
illogical. The groundskeeper asks the younger man if he knows that there are
plants that can move. The younger man shakes his head and the groundskeeper shows
him a plant whose leaves close rapidly after they are touched. The younger man
is left in stunned silence. The groundskeeper says, with plain, unadorned
wisdom, “There’s some questions got answers and some haven’t.”
Picnic at Hanging Rock is streaming on HBOmax and The Criterion Channel.
