Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018)

"A Surprising & Satisfying New Take on Joan Lindsay's Book"

Mind you, when I say that please bear in mind that I love stuff that has lovely gothic production design, over the top gorgeous brightly coloured costumes, and a healthy sense that some of the people involved with this have seen Narciso Ibanez Serrador's 1969 girls' school horror LA RESIDENCIA (THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED. 

On Valentine's Day in 1900 a group of schoolgirls from the remote Appleyard College take a trip to local landmark Hanging Rock. Whilst there, three of the girls and one of their teachers disappear. As days turn into weeks, the town becomes rife with theories as to what might have happened to them. Central to some of these is the school's mysterious headmistress, Miss Appleyard herself (if that's even her real name).

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is a superb Peter Weir film from 1975. It's dreamy, mystical, and wit a delightfully inconclusive storyline. The performances are all spot on and Gheorghe Zamfir's pan pipes may be the best use of that instrument in a film (Bruce Smeaton's piano in this is a personal favourite as well). 

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK 2018 sticks with the period and the Joan Lindsay source novel and downplays the dreamy weirdness in favour of examining the mystery. The series is six hour-long (ish) episodes and much of what was in the film is covered in the first two, allowing a lot more time to be spent going into various characters' backgrounds as well as including some that the movie omitted.

But is it any good? Well I have to say I quite enjoyed it, even if the running time did result in a couple of episodes where the plot isn't really being pushed forward. Natalie Dormer is an intriguing choice to play the headmistress and she acquits herself well in a seeming never-ending variety of almost steampunk-style costumes. There's a decent sense of the gothic and the ending is...you'll have to discover that for yourself.

There's a fair bit of wobbly camerawork at the beginning, and every now and then one gets the impression the production is being filmed by someone of diminutive stature who has one leg shorter than the other, but that actually settles down during the important bits so don't switch off after episode one. 

Acorn Media's dual disc set comes with a 23 minute making of and lots of interviews with cast and crew. This version of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK isn't going to replace the Weir version but it does actually provide a pleasant 6 hours of Australian gothic,.

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is out from Acorn Media on DVD on Monday 20th August 2018