WAKE IN FRIGHT
TV Mini-Series, 2017

Gallery  Publications   Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb 

Remake is a thankless task. Remake of the classic masterpiece is also dangerous task. Remake of such a fundamental pillar of Australian cinema, as "Wake in fright", first of all, is ridiculous task.

One of the key films of the "Golden Age of Australian cinema" and the founder of the super-genre "ozploitation", "Wake in fright" by Canadian director Ted Kotcheff made his way to the viewers twice. For the first time it was in 1971, after the Cannes triumph. And after almost forty years of oblivion, when it has been restored and digitized.

Today, this old picture, based on the novel by Kenneth Cook, with its stellar cast (Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty, Gary Bond, Jack Thompson), with its classic collection of all Australian archetypes and film approaches, is surrounded by the recognition of the audience.

But generations will never converge on the issues of perception of artistic forms. Therefore, remake is a natural task.

A middle-class man from the big city, John Grant heavily accepts the necessity to work as a school teacher in a remote township in a dull outback. The long-awaited Christmas holiday should reunite him with his girlfriend waiting for him in Sydney. But a short stop in a small mining town called "The Yabba" turns his life upside down.

The good people of Yabba, led by local authority, Sergeant Jock Crawford, meet the young man cordially. The evening ends with drinking and favorite gambling of Australian "cowboys". And in the morning, the sobered-up teacher discovers himself without a penny in his pocket and is deeply stuck in this hospitable entrance to the underworld with his daily drinking, dirty copulations and bloody funs.

The dream of reason, as you known, produces monsters. And it's not a fact that you can get rid of them later, just waking up.

Cast:

Sean Keenan    ... John Grant
David Wenham    ... Sergeant Jock Crawford
Alex Dimitriades    ...Doc Tydon
Gary Sweet    ...Tim Hynes
Caren Pistorius    ...Janette Hynes
Hannah Fredericksen    ...Robyn
Robyn Malcolm    ...Ursula Hynes
and others