Ozploitation

Ozploitation (a portmanteau of Australia and exploitation) films are a type of low budget horror, comedy and action films made in Australia after the introduction of the R rating in 1971^{[citation needed]}. The year also marked the beginnings of the Australian New Wave movement, and the Ozploitation style peaked within the same time frame (early 1970s to late 1980s). Ozploitation is often considered a smaller wave within the New Wave, "a time when break-neck-action, schlock-horror, ocker comedy and frisky sex romps joined a uniquely antipodean wave in exploitation cinema"^{[citation needed]}.

Background

The origin of the term "Ozploitation" is credited to the documentary Not Quite Hollywood. Quentin Tarantino coined the phrase "Aussiesploitation", which director Mark Hartley then shortened to "Ozploitation"^[1].

Notable films

Some notable films from the New Wave era include:^{[citation needed]}

• Alvin Purple
• Wake in Fright (the original film of the genre, recently restored)
• Don's Party
• BMX Bandits
• Walkabout
• Howling III
• Mad Max
• Long Weekend
• Razorback
• Jindabyne
• Patrick (film)
• The Man from Hong Kong
• Dead End Drive-In
• Turkey Shoot
• El Monstro Del Mar
• Arigato Baby
• Mad Dog Morgan
• Wolf Creek
• Crocodile Dundee
• Evil Angels
• Ned Kelly
• The Devil's Playground
• Fair Game

Ozploitation today

Ozploitation is experiencing something of a revivial in recent years with films: Undead (2003), Wolf Creek (2005), Rogue (2007), Daybreakers (2010), Storm Warning (2008), and Long Weekend (2008) made in the Ozploitation style. A 2008 feature film, Not Quite Hollywood, examines the Ozploitation films made during the Australian New Wave. The film includes interviews with Quentin Tarantino, a long time fan of Ozploitation films^{[citation needed]}. Queensland University of Technology PhD researcher Mark David Ryan, in the first in-depth study, found that Australian horror film production has trebled from less than 20 films in the 1990s to over 60 films between 2000 and 2008^[2]. In an article examining the limitations of cultural policy that attempts to develop the Australian film industry, Ryan (2009) investigates the boom in Australian horror films outside of cultural policy frameworks and public subsidy. The article suggests that 'global forces and emerging production and distribution models are challenging the ‘narrowness’ of cultural policy – a narrowness that mandates a particular film culture, circumscribes certain notions of value and limits the variety of films produced domestically. Despite their low-culture status, horror films have been well suited to the Australian film industry’s financial limitations, they are a growth strategy for producers, and a training ground for emerging filmmakers'^[3].

Australian audiences remain ambivalent about the Ozploitation genre, as such films address themes concerning Australian society which they often find confronting, particularly in respect of masculinity (especially the Ocker male), male attitudes towards women, attitudes towards and treatment of Indiginous Australians, violence, alcohol, and environmental exploitation and destruction. Such films are also typically given rural or outback settings which emphasise the Australian landscape and environment as an active and almost spiritually malign force which alienates white Australians and frustrates both their personal ambitions and activities and their attempts to subdue it. This may explain why these films are sometimes categorised as horror. The Ozploitation genre stands in almost stark juxtaposition with other Australian films which attempt to define Australia as a suburban middle-class society of some sophistication, as exemplified by such films as The Getting of Wisdom, Looking for Alibrandi, Look Both Ways, Lantana, and Picnic at Hanging Rock (which actually references some aspects of Ozploitation in its malign representation of the Australian landscape). However, there are also notable exceptions in the genre, such as the Urban Gothic The Devil's Playground (1976), a semi-autobiographical film set behind the walls of the Roman Catholic Church, which so presciently signposts the later exposure of the sexual abuse scandals which continue to rock that church. While generally regarded as being of B movie status, many Ozploitation films nonetheless offer comment about Australian society at some level of seriousness.

Nomenclature

Having been identified and defined, there has been some suggestion in recent times that the Ozploitation genre should be renamed Australian Gothic.

See also

• Psychotronic

References

1. ^ The Bazura Project - Interview with Mark Hartley, 28 October 2008
2. ^ Horror Brings Film Industry Back From Grave, The Age, 13 October 2008
3. ^ Ryan , Mark David (2009) 'Whither culture? Australian horror films and the limitations of cultural policy'. Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy(No 133). pp. 43-55.

External links

• Ozploitation article @ THE DEUCE: Grindhouse Cinema Database
• Ozploitation at the Internet Movie Database