February 5, 2025

FILMHOUNDS Magazine

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Haunting, Unsettling, and Visually Exquisite – Picnic at Hanging Rock (Film Review)

“Everything begins and ends at exactly the right time,” says one of the characters in Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock. This is very much true for the characters of the film, especially those who become involved in the whole mystery behind the picnic at the Hanging Rock, but does this sentiment apply to the film itself?

Set at the titular Hanging Rock on the 14th of February 1990, Picnic at Hanging Rock follows a group of schoolgirls from Appleyard College who visit the Hanging Rock to celebrate Valentine's Day with their two teachers. During the day, four girls leave the picnic area to explore the Hanging Rock and end up falling into a strange trance before disappearing. Their mysterious disappearances have an effect on the entire community around them as various people attempt to solve this mystery and bring them back to the school.

A low rumbling sound over the opening credits immediately sets the tone of Picnic at Hanging Rock. Much of the tense atmosphere that the film creates is due to its brilliant soundtrack which often uses mystical even in what would otherwise seem like ordinary moments in the lives of the girls. By using such a unique sound design, the movie immediately teases the mysterious events that are soon to follow and take over the lives of the protagonists forever. The cinematography is equally impressive in a film that often uses its camera to visually represent and explore the inner emotional feelings of the characters and the turmoil the school goes through during the events of the film.

It is especially fascinating how the camera itself becomes less static and more handheld and frantic as it reaches the Hanging Rock. The camera movements become looser, perhaps even less rational, as the film finally allows the audience to see the Hanging Rock, which has been talked about since the very first shot of the film but only shown after the first act. This not only mirrors the mental state of the characters and evokes a sense of uneasiness in the proximity of the Hanging Rock, but it also portrays the latter as a spectacle in every sense of the term. The camera has to pan and track in order to the audience to see the entire picture of the Hanging Rock, creating the idea that the viewers can never grasp its mysterious natural beauty in just one look, or one singular shot.

Weir manages to create an ominous atmosphere that keeps following us throughout the film. This is set up at the beginning through the tense soundtrack and intertitle that informs the audience about some mysterious disappearance that happened at Hanging Day on that fateful Valentine's Day. This also helps builds a sense of realism as the film uses some traditional documentary techniques – such as the aforementioned beginning intertitles and the voice of God narration that follows them and comes back in the final scene of the film as well – to ground its story in reality. By contrast, this makes the more supernatural and rationally incomprehensible parts of Picnic at Hanging Rock stand out even more in an otherwise very realistic setting.

The ending of Picnic at Hanging Rock has sparked its fair share of criticism. While some plotlines could have admittedly been handled better – the ones involving the side characters end up feeling slightly rushed in order to conclude all the storylines properly – the film could have simply not have had any other conclusion. Such an ending is part of what makes it such an iconic and unforgettable movie that has certainly earned its place in film history as one of the best films in Weir's career and in the tradition of Australia cinema at large.

Valentine's Day previews on 14 & 15 February and opening in cinemas in the UK & Ireland on 21 February 2025