May You Dream of the Devil and "Wake in Fright"

"All the little devils are proud of Hell."

The Hell referred to in this line from Wake in Fright (1971) is Bundanyabba, a fictional town in the Australian Outback where an ignorant and arrogant schoolteacher meets his ruin over the course of five days. The devils are the beer-swigging locals who are glad to be your "mate" so long as you have a drink -- or 10.

John Grant, played by British actor Gary Bond, is a young schoolteacher forced to pay off a government bond for his college education by teaching in a one-room school in the town of Tiboonda, shown in the opening shot as nothing more than two drab buildings surrounded by an endless expanse of flat, arid land. For being so vast, the landscape is suffocating.

The opening shot of Wake in Fright - the "town" of Tiboonda

The movie begins on the last day of class before the start of Christmas break. Grant rushes from the school to the only other building in town, a pub with a few rooms for lodging. He has just enough time for a beer and a few condescending remarks with the sweaty proprietor before catching his train. One of the most powerful images in the film occurs in the pub, as Grant catches a glimpse of the bartender's wife sitting lifelessly in the kitchen, resigned to a fate of dust, sweat, and loneliness, and the despair of knowing that life has nothing more to offer her.

Grant can't get out of Tiboonda soon enough. He plans to spend the holidays in Sydney with his girlfriend, Robin. His itinerary consists of a night's stay in the small city of Bundanyabba, referred to affectionately by the locals as "the Yabba," where he will catch his flight the following morning.

What follows is Grant's descent into Hell. After a drunken night of gambling that leaves him broke, he finds himself unable to escape the Yabba and resigns himself to the aggressive hospitality of several locals who prove to be little more than animals fueled by cheap beer. Grant is bombarded with endless offers of beer, and to turn down booze in the Outback is a sin on par with murder. Among the group he falls in with is Doc Tydon, a sinister, self-proclaimed alcoholic who passes himself off as a doctor and philosopher.

Wake in Fright paints a terrifying portrait of the Outback, where the stifling heat, barren landscape, shortage of women, and overwhelming isolation leaves its inhabitants searching for an escape, whether through beer or suicide. After a few blackouts, a sickening kangaroo hunt, and a horrific night in Doc Tydon's shack, John Grant discovers what little it takes to reduce a human being to a savage.

The title of the film comes from a Medieval adage. "May you dream of the devil and wake in fright."

*Available on Netflix Instant Streaming