Newly-restored Aussie thriller Wake in Fright hits home in January

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

We wrote a handful of articles about Ted Kotcheff’s WAKE IN FRIGHT a couple of month ago, when Drafthouse Films was good enough to find and restore the lost Australian classic. Met with great reviews and a whole new generation of appreciators, the 1971 thriller will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on JANUARY 15th.

WAKE IN FRIGHT tells the story of a British schoolteacher’s descent into personal demoralization at the hands of the deranged, hard-drinking residents of a remote Australian town. John Grant (Gary Bond, Anne of the Thousand Days, the BBC’s Great Expectations) teaches at a tiny school in the outback. On his way to Sydney to catch a vacation flight, he stops in a rural mining town, where he is reluctantly drawn into the macho antics of the local men. After losing his money in the gambling game two-up, he is taken on a drunken and brutal kangaroo hunt with three of the beer-guzzling louts – a horrifying ordeal that culminates in a shattering sexual assault.

WAKE IN FRIGHT – which co-stars versatile film favorite Donald Pleasence (Halloween, Escape From New York) and rugged Australian icons Jack Thompson (Breaker Morant) and Chips Rafferty (Mutiny on the Bounty) – is back to reclaim its title as one of the most awe-inspiring, brutal and stunning films of all time. And Drafthouse Films has created a Blu-ray/DVD package befitting the movie’s status as a revered treasure.

Extras include:

– Audio commentary by director Ted Kotcheff and editor Anthony Buckley
– The making-of featurette “To the Yabba and Back”
– A Q&A with Kotcheff from the 2009 Toronto Film Festival
– A look at the movie’s restoration
– “Who Needs Art?” vintage segment on Wake in Fright
– Theatrical trailers
– A 28-page booklet

Pre-order WAKE IN FRIGHT on DVD right HERE or Blu-ray HERE.