Maitland Favorites: "Wake in Fright"

First in an occasional series recommending lesser-known, kick-you-in-the-gut classics.

The Australian psychological-horror film Wake in Fright remains as unsettling today as it was upon its release in 1971. Dropping a reasonable man into a baked and forgotten town somewhere in nowhere, it turns the Australian Outback into a figurative a circle of Hell. And not some cool, post-apocalyptic, Mohawks-and-motorcycles Hell a la Mad Max and its descendants, but rather something that makes Deliverance look like Disney.

Little seen for many years after its original elements went missing and existing prints wore out, Wake in Fright is based on the novel by prolific Australian journalist Kenneth Cook (1929-1987) and directed by Canadian-born Ted Kotcheff — whose credits range from the acclaimed The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) to the inaugural Rambo movie, First Blood (1982), to that comedy-of-bad-taste classic Weekend at Bernie’s (1989). More than a half-century since its original release, Wake in Fright remains the movie equivalent of looking a venomous snake in the eye: mesmerizing, harrowing and unforgettable.