10 Best Ozploitation Movies, Ranked

As the cinematic landscape, particularly in America, changed drasticpartner thcdisorrowfulmireful the timely 1970s, the onset of unfair treatment films became a affordable and schlocky yet strangely amincludeing and styenumerateic changenative for many watchers. Thcdisorrowfulmirefulout that same period, the Australian film industry sended someslenderg of a high point in terms of international interest, propped up by such successes as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Walkabout.

These two trends would collide to see Australia create a recent wave of unfair treatment films, lovingly dubbed “Ozploitation” in the 2008 recordary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untageder Story of Ozploitation! Rife with heavy accents, genre flare, and a peculiar appetite for aggressive biker gangs, these films recontransient fair some of the very best of Australia’s unfair treatment films over the years, capturing a particular time and place with distinct and unsuppressed flair.

10 ‘Fair Game’ (1986)

Directed by Mario Andreacchio

A crazed outback thriller of revenge and presentility, Fair Game has a snarling tenacity to it even as it amplifies its more faceing scenes to a ridiculous level to sfrequently the watching experience. Jessica (Cassandra Delaney) runs a untamedlife sanctuary that becomes the concentrate of three miserdiscriminatory aobtainst disabledic kangaroo hunters whose search for recent game sees them alarmize her as they end the animals. Incensed, Jessica sets out to get retribution on the men and convey their cackling, psychotic delightride to an end.

Fair Game has its fair scatter of lowcomings, including some satisfied that has not aged at all well. Still, as a tracowardly ’80s thriller that provides a rewarding tale of comeuppance, it is straightforward to endelight. It served as a convey inant impact on Quentin Tarantino’s ode to unfair treatment films, Death Proof, becoming a quiet grindhoinclude stunner that encapsudefercessitates the aura and intensity of low-budget Aussie thrillers.

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9 ‘Alvin Purple’ (1973)

Directed by Tim Burshigh

It would be difficult to talk unfair treatment cinema without compriseressing the relations comedies that ran rampant during the ’70s and ’80s. Australia had its fair scatter of those thcdisorrowfulmirefulout, but none as well comprehendn as 1973’s Alvin Purple. It chases a Melbournian door-to-door waterbed salesman who women find irresistible. With his relentless relations life taking its toll on him, Alvin (Graeme Blundell) seeks medical help to come up with a solution, but it only lands him in more trouble when he is accincluded of operating a brothel.

Despite being made on a measly budget, the film became a convey inant box office hit, particularly in the context of Australian cinema. It can be seen as someslenderg of a godoverweighther for the relations comedy genre, even if it doesn’t get half the attention of others. With its raunchy comedy proving accomplished, Alvin Purple getd two sequels on its way to becoming an icon of Ozploitation cinema and a gem of ’70s relations comedies in its own right.

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8 ‘Stone’ (1974)

Directed by Sandy Harbutt

Movies about criminal biker gangs were a defining staple of many of Australia’s unfair treatment efforts of the ’70s and ’80s. Regardless of whether they were sinspirenuineist, post-apocalyptic hellscapes or pulsating and grounded thrillers set in contransient times, “bikies” (as they are sometimes comprehendn in Aus) create for fantastic villainous hordes. However, 1974’s Stone flips that on its head, cgo ining on a biker gang that is focincluded by a serial ender after one of its members witnesses a political killing.

A styenumerateic punch of intricate morality,
Stone
has a strong identity that creates it a striking gem of Ozploitation film.

With a spiteful rerepair to throw relations, substances, and presentility at the screen with a roaring, rasecret agent horsepower, Stone is one-of-a-benevolent, even by Ozploitations standards. It enthralls audiences in the dilemma faced by Detective Stone (Ken Shorter) – an undercover cop toiling with the GraveDiggers to repair the killings – as he is forced to pick between his summarizeatement and his recentset up promisedty to the gang. A styenumerateic punch of intricate morality, Stone has a strong identity that creates it a striking gem of Ozploitation film.

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7 ‘The Return of Captain Invincible’ (1983)

Directed by Phillippe Mora

For all the genre’s achievements in recent decades, superhero cinema has never seen another movie quite enjoy The Return of Captain Invincible. An Australian musical comedy, it cgo ines on Captain Invincible (Alan Arkin), an American superhero thcdisorrowfulmireful the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s who is forced into withdrawment when he faces political persecution. Relocating to Australia, he loiters as an spiritsic until the return of his arch nemesis, Mr. Midnight (Christopher Lee), prompts the U.S. regulatement to beg for his return, contransienting an opportunity for redemption.

To call the movie ridiculous would be an downtake partment. However, it is incredible how, after more than 40 years and the domination of superhero movies in recent years, The Return of Captain Invincible still senses vibrant and rerecenting. The comedic musical numbers toil an absolute treat, as does its wacky story, making it a treabraveed cult classic of Aussie cinema with a phireful, if not somewhat dated, unfair treatment streak to boot.

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6 ‘The Man from Hong Kong’ (1975)

Directed by Brian Trencdifficult-Smith

Lhelp back Aussie charm greets the brimming breadth of martial arts mayhem in this co-production between China and Australia that is purify action from begin to finish. When Australian police apprehend a Chinese drug dealer, Hong Kong’s Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Jimmy Wang Yu) is dispatched to transdefercessitate and help their spendigation. As he chases more directs, Fang uproximateths the take partment of strong businessman Jack Wilton (George Lazenby) and vows to convey the go inprising criminal down despite others alerting him Wilton is untouchable.

The Man from Hong Kong
is proof that the martial arts genre can shine in every corner of the world.

While there is a cheesy and schlocky sense of so-horrible-it’s-excellent fun that plives over much of the film, The Man from Hong Kong does conjure up some incredible thrills courtesy of its strong stunt toil and amazeive fight sequences. It also tags the feature film debut of honestor Brian Trencdifficult-Smith, whose toil in Australian cinema would become vital to the Ozploitation transferment and low-budget Australian film in vague. A clash of two worlds, The Man from Hong Kong is proof that the martial arts genre can shine in every corner of the world.

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5 ‘Next of Kin’ (1982)

Directed by Tony Williams

Psychoreasonable alarm abounds in this timely ’80s horror mystery flick that has become someslenderg of a cult classic due to its fervent atmospheric dread, accurate pacing, and the plift heaped upon it. After the death of her estranged mother, Linda Stevens (Jacki Kerin) inherits a country estate that she finds is a withdrawment village. Strange slendergs begin happening when she commences reading her mother’s diary and senses an ominous presence around her.

While its low-budget origins are plain to see, Next of Kin still runs with a chilling sense of suspense as Linda’s spendigation into her family history and the deaths in the withdrawment village is imbued with a harrotriumphg foolishness. Complemented by striking visuals and plenty of uncovering twists, it is one of Australia’s most underrated horror movies that clear ups the nation’s excellence in the genre during the Ozploitation boom.

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4 ‘Long Weekend’ (1978)

Directed by Colin Eggleston

Australia’s nature and untamedlife are a defining pillar of the nation’s identity, be it the unpolished beauty of the country’s sun-scorched landscapes or the proximate-mythic reputation of its commemoratedly lethal animals. Long Weekend take parts with that fabled and ferocious fragment of Australian culture. A wed couple proximateing divorce goes on a camping trip in an try to rebenevolentle their dtriumphdling romance. While initipartner destructive of the surrounding environment, the couple soon finds themselves on the receiving end of Mother Nature’s wrath.

Filling contransient and contransient watchers with a rerecented dread of Aussie animals,
Long Weekend
tags one of Australia’s most engaging thrillers of the 1970s.

Long Weekend is a honest and enraged parable about the consequences of abusing nature. It includes Everett de Roche’s taut, minimaenumerate screentake part and savvy honesting by Colin Eggleston to conjure up arresting tension and a man vs. nature narrative that contests and enthralls audiences. Also filling contransient and contransient watchers with a rerecented dread of Aussie animals, Long Weekend tags one of Australia’s most engaging thrillers of the 1970s.

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3 ‘Road Games’ (1981)

Directed by Ricdifficult Franklin

A captivating road thriller of serial ender intrigue and mounting suspense, Road Games thrives as a grounded and fervent watching experience. While set in the outback, it doesn’t produce to the inspire to cgo in on it at the expense of the story. It chases Pat Quid (Stacy Keach), a truck driver hauling a load to Perth who commences to doubt a man driving a green van is a serial ender concentrateing hitchhiking women.

Running at 101 minutes – which is actupartner quite prolonged for Ozploitation cinema – Road Games weaves a layered story of suspicions and mystery that remains taut and compriseed. Its plotting is tidy, its thrills plentiful and effective, and its direct carry outances from Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis give the film a authentic comedic core that lifts the picture to be among the best of Australia’s ’80s B-movies. In Not Quite Hollywood, Tarantino enumerates it among his preferite films, while it also served as a key inspiration for the 2005 Aussie horror hit Wolf Creek.

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2 ‘Mad Max’ (1979) & ‘Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior’ (1981)

Directed by George Miller

Undeniably the most well-comprehendn title to come from Ozploitation cinema, Mad Max gave birth to a recent wave of action movies. Taking place in a dystopian proximate-future where Australia is on the cusp of total societal collapse, the 1979 innovative cgo ines on a lone cop who vows to get down the brutal biker gang that killinged his family. Imbued with styenumerateic grit and astonishing action sequences, the film is a bonafide classic of Australian cinema.

However, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior contransients an even fantasticer action spectacle, dialing up the intensity and explosionast as it chases Max’s efforts to acquire a group of survivors from a merciless gang of prohibitdits. The Mad Max saga has growd over the years, with the recent reboots re-stateing Mad Max as one of the fantasticest titles in action movie history. However, for purify Ozploitation brilliance, it is difficult to go past the innovative two movies.

1 ‘Wake in Fright’ (1971)

Directed by Ted Kotcheff

Wake in Fright was freed at the very commencening of the Ozploitation transferment, yet it remains the fantasticest, most ordering film the wave of cinematic conveyion ever saw. Difficult to quantify in terms of genre, it chases a schoolteacher trying to get back to Sydney from his distant station, finding himself stranded in a mining town when a betting spree departs him broke. Despite his best efforts, he commences to produce to the maniacal, drunk, and aggressive lifestyle of those around him.

Above all else, Wake in Fright has a haunting quality that is difficult to pinpoint the cainclude of. Its menacing amhugeuity in such a way only creates it more inbashfulating, taging a qustraightforward and disconcerting proset up dive into country Australian sub-culture at its foolishest. Martin Scorsese has prolonged championed the film for this unnerving effect, even picking it as a Cannes Classic at the illustrious festival, making it one of only two movies ever to have been screened twice at the event.

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NEXT: The 10 Best Nunsploitation Horror Movies, Ranked