MovieChat Forums > Picnic at Hanging Rock (1979) Discussion > Other eerie, haunting, patient, atmosphe...

Other eerie, haunting, patient, atmospheric films like this one?

posted 18 years ago by StrawDogBreeder
183 replies | jump to latest

The music, landscapes, and pacing of this film all contribute to its itching mystery at least as much as the plot itself. There's also something about the film (stock) itself that acts as a better medium for this kind of meditative piece. It's a work of art made on a higher quality canvas. Knowhattamean? In descibing its qualities and effects, though, I have to fight a tendency of drifting into abstract, snobbish descriptions. What are some other films that have some of these haunting, patient(?) qualities?

A few I have seen:

1. Solaris (Tarkovsky, not Soderbergh)
2. Stalker (also Tarkovsky)
3. (At least the first half of) The Black Stallion
4. Ring of Bright Water
5. Dead Man (sort of)

[–] alecmunday 18 years ago

Nobody's mentioned 'The Beguiled' yet - a great storyline that slowly developes (almost) into a gothic horror.

AlB

[–] gnolti 18 years ago

Beguiled is a good one, though I'm not sure it's available on DVD.

"As Balzac said, There goes another novel."

[–] Devil_In_A_New_Dress 18 years ago

I'm suprised nobodu has mentioned Robert Altman's underrated "3 women". I have not seen "Picnic at Hanging Rock" yet but the former is one of my favorite films and I hear they are very similar. Highly reccomended to everyone here.

[–] mike_wreck 18 years ago

3 Women, absolutely. Also, The Story of Marie and Julien by Jacques Rivette; patient, chilling, fascinating. Great stuff. All of Rivette's films share that same patient and deliberate style. I'd also recommend Celine and Julie go Boating by him, though it isn't as dark.

Last Year at Marienbad by Resnais is similarly patient and moody. Check that out as well.

[–] Devil_In_A_New_Dress 18 years ago

I've been trying to track down a DVD of "Celine and Julie go Boating" for months. I know it was recently released on Region 2, but it costs almost $100 with the shipping. Do you have a DVD copy?

[–] cthulhulurks 12 years ago

You mean the seventies film in which three women fv(k a deserter only to later kill him?

my vote history:
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13767631/ratings

[–] spacemouse 18 years ago

The Blair Witch Project

Fruitmouse

[–] psycho-lolita 18 years ago

The Virgin Suicides has a somewhat eerie feeling, too.

[–] allaboutfarrell 18 years ago

Has anyone seen The Changeling with George C. Scott? I have been reading some great reviews of it on Netflix. I have it in my queue and I am looking forward to seeing it.

It is described as a horror film about the ghost of a young boy who haunts the house of a recently widowed musician - I don't know how it might compare to Picnic at Hanging Rock but I thought I might point people towards it anyway. It looks good!

[–] Belorezki 18 years ago

I'd recommend Lucile Hadzihalilovic's "Innocence". Fantastic movie!

[–] movieman200 18 years ago

Although totally different, they each have their own atmosphere and eeriness in their own right:

The End Of The Affair

Diabolique

Something Wicked This Way Comes

[–] JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies 16 years ago

Innocence (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375233/) was also the first film that came to mind for me in response to this thread. It's similar enough to probably have been partially inspired by this one, and I like it even better than Picnic at Hanging Rock--although I like both a lot.

http://www.rateyourmusic.com/~JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] makingam 18 years ago

The woman in the dunes

[–] Nephilim-6 18 years ago

Vozvrashcheniye http://imdb.com/title/tt0376968/

Did you ever notice that people who believe in creationism look realy un-evolved? - Bill Hicks

[–] iteration3 18 years ago

Picnic at Hanging Rock is far and away one of my favorite movies and shares something of its haunting quality with some of the other films coming out of Australia at the time, though none so profoundly. My Brilliant Career comes particularly to mind, though it is more triumphant than haunting.

Spirited Away above all the following, the rest being in no particular order.

The Hours

Sirens

Places in the Heart

Lair of the White Worm

I know this one is going to get me in trouble: Artificial Intelligence: AI

Invaders from Mars (Menzies, 1953, not the wretched remake by Tobe Hooper; yeah, it's horribly shot, marginally acted, and thinly plotted, but you can't imagine the number of people this movie has affected and haunted, many of whom do not even know its name)

previously mentioned but worth relisting: Heavenly Creatures

In its own peculiar way: A Clockwork Orange

[–] ashlee_coco 18 years ago

Visitors (2003) - you have to be VERY patient to watch this movie!

The hardest thing in this world is to live in it

[–] Crabnebula1914 18 years ago

1.) The Shooting (really moody western)
2.) Arabian Nights (Pasolini)
3.) Badlands
4.) Through a Glass a Darkly (not scanner)
5.) The Virgin Spring
6.) Dead Ringers
7.) McCabe and Mrs. Miller
8.) 3 Women
9.) Persona

[–] imakebadfilms 18 years ago

2001: A Space Odyssey was the first film that came to my mind as i watched Picnic At Hanging Rock...they both leave the viewer completely mystified...

[–] Cherubim1 18 years ago

2001: A Space Odyssey makes sense up until the last 20 minutes. The stargate sequence is perplexing to many and is open to wide interpretation.

The film is basically about evolution and the transformation of human consciousness. I especially liked the slow, deliberate scenes of the spacecraft - very entrancing.

Both Picnic at Hanging Rock and 2001: A Space Odyssey are very visual films. One needs to immerse themselves with each films atmosphere to fully appreciate them. They can't really be explained logically.

[–] worstpirateever 18 years ago

I would say Tarkovsky films (even though I have only seen a couple of them but the ones I have seen have an eerie atmosphere), maybe The Devil's Backbone which is a completely different movie but has that sort of eerie, haunted atmopshere. Donnie Darko has an eerie sort of atmosphere and I think its a good movie but I don't know whether thats really a similar recommendation. Those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

[–] theprelude69 18 years ago

I have this film in my head that i saw years and years ago and what i have heard of PAHR reminds me quite a bit of it, same eerie quality i remember getting. I can only remember flashes of scenes in my head. There are children possibly from 1800's or early 1900's, and they play some sort of supernatural game that involves one person standing in the middle and the others chant around in a circle. The child in the middle disappears. There may be something to do with a small hole in the ground. and i think maybe some sort of time portal where someone has to go and find an older version of one of the children or a teacher maybe to try and help save the child that disappeared. When i say children, they could be anything from 10 to 17. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

[–] Hal-83 17 years ago

Could it be Playing Beatie Bow, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091766/? I have only seen bits of the film on the telly but read the book as a child. It downright terrified me.

Well, why don't we call it "research" or something?

[–] kirby-37 16 years ago

I have to mention "The Innocents" which is quite different and more deliberate horror mixed with mystery but there is something quite similar in the eerie strange sadness and perverse sexuality of both films (more overtly with "The Innocents" of course. Both films are unforgettably beautiful and tragic.

[–] tha_ej 16 years ago

I'm pretty sure The Innocents has been mentioned. It's what prompted me to see it for the first time. I have to nominate it for a third time, it is an excellent film. An instant favourite of mine.