INN OF THE DAMNED

Australia, 1974, 118 Minutes, Colour.
Dame Judith Anderson, Alex Cord, Michael Craig, Joseph Furst, John Meillon, Tony Bonner.
Directed by Terry Bourke.

Inn Of The Damned is set in Gippsland, 1896, (tellingly filmed, however, in and about Sydney) and is an effective setting for a macabre story of murder and madness. The ingredients are promising but add up only to average historical melodrama. Judith Anderson is there, sinister as ever. Alex. Cord plays an American bounty hunter at work in Victoria, but his presence (plus coaches, towns, hotels) suggest too much of the American West for Australian flavour. Psychological reasons are suggested for the ghastly killings, but, while this is played for pathos at the end, the whole film seems to smack of the lurid. However, given the artificialities of the genre, it is grisly entertaining.

1. The impact of the film as a thriller, suspense story, horror?

2. The film as an aspect of Australian history, how interesting, realistic?

3. How enjoyable was the film? Its quality? Colour, locations, photography etc.? Themes?

4. The atmosphere of Gippsland in 1896? Its contribution to the themes of the film, the characters? The film's communication of isolation, the nature of the bush, madness, the role of death, atmosphere of convicts, the tracking of convicts, bounty hunters, atmosphere of cruelty, sexual perversion? Was the lurid atmosphere appropriate or overdone?

5. The film's communication of the atmosphere of horror: the Inn itself, the deaths, the bodies down the well, the screen going red, the use of storms and lightning, the macabre devices for death, e.g. the bed? Audience response to this for a horror film?

6. The focus of the film on the family: the place of the flashbacks, the quality of the photography and the lyricism combined with horror? The reprise of the flashbacks at the end for meaning? The characters of Caroline and Lazar? Their grief, the idea of murdering?

7. How well explored were the characters of Caroline and Lazar? The ugliness in their hearts, their motivation, the mixture of gentility and ghastliness? The clash with Kincaid? The struggle to kill him? Kincaid's final pity? The pathos? What reaction was the audience left with in their regard?

8. The collusion of the couple with Biscayne? The idea of murder? His leaving? The pursuit of Biscayne by Kincaid? (Was this a distraction from the main theme of the film?) The fight, his death, reaction in the town?

9. Kincaid as the hero of the film? How -appropriate? An American in Australia? The bounty hunter traditions of the American west? The relentlessness of his pursuit his relationship with people, the girl in the town? The contrast with Trooper Moore? His outwitting Biscayne? His outwitting death? His final reflections?

10. Trooper Moore as a contrast with Kincaid? more restrained? The law and violence? Yet the victim of the couple?

11. The importance of Melford? As having insight into the couple and the Inn? As saving?

12. The importance of the sub-plot with George Parr? An Australian type7 Some humour? Some pathos?

13. The portrayal of the people who were murdered? Did they deserve such deaths? The types? The coach driver, the stepmother and the daughter and their lesbian relationship?

14. The film's use of blood and gore for its horror effects? Appropriate or exploited?

15. What values did the film stand for in asking audiences to respond to its horror themes?