Between 1992 and 1999, John Bunting killed 11 people in Adelaide, Australia, which is probably why everyone still thinks of it as the murder capital of the country (it’s actually Alice Springs). Bunting’s M.O. was to target those who wouldn’t be missed – people like drug addicts, homosexuals, and child abusers. Before they died, his victims were tortured and forced to record messages to their families saying they were leaving and didn’t want to be contacted. The remains of eight of his victims were found inside barrels of acid stored in a disused bank vault.
Director Justin Kurzel’s new film, Snowtown, is a chilling psycho-drama based on the events in Adelaide, and it totally gave us the creeps. It comes out next week in Australia, so we thought we’d talk to him about it.
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Vice: Are there any unique challenges in making a film based on true events? Especially when your subject matter has become modern folklore in Australia?
Justin Kurzel: I think that there is a responsibility to make sure you tell the story with integrity, but a film is always going to be an interpretation. Shaun Grant (Snowtown‘s screenwriter) and myself, right from the very start, wanted to make sure that the victims were treated on screen with dignity, and that the violence in the film was always connected with the point of view of the lead character and the emotional truth of the scene.
Jamie Vlassakis, played by Lucas Pittaway
When you say the lead, are you refering to John Bunting or the younger character, Jamie?
To me, the story is told through Jamie Vlassakis, the 17/18-year-old in the film. So when I say the lead character, I guess I mean the point of view the story is told from, which is his.
Jamie is an interesting character. Even though you sympathize with him, you definitely begin to lament his actions, or lack thereof.
I didn’t ever want to sit there and judge him. I mean, obviously he was involved in some pretty horrific crimes, and the film doesn’t shy away from his involvement in those crimes. I guess to Sean and I, the most important thing was that the film posed the question: What would you have done if you were in similar circumstances, had a similar upbringing, and came across a figure like John Bunting? Would you have made different choices than Jamie?
Jamie’s situation is particularly bleak – he’s from a broken home in a community where there aren’t many opportunities. He is often ignored, and we get a strong sense of anger and mistrust from him. Do you feel this contributed to the way his story played out?
I think the fascinating thing about Snowtown is that it was a very vulnerable group of people who were struggling to be heard. And they were quite angry. What makes the story interesting is that a figure like John Bunting came into their lives and exploited that fear, vulnerability, and anger for his own use. I guess with Jamie, at that point in his life, he might have easily come across a positive figure who could have steered him in a different direction. Unfortunately, the figure of Bunting came along instead, and his life took a very, very different path.
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John Bunting, played by Dan Henchell
Could you describe John Bunting?
The film is based on transcripts and also a couple of books. Particularly, a book called Killing for Pleasure, by Debi Marshall, who did a lot of research around the area with people who knew John Bunting. And while we were casting and doing auditions, we met a lot of people who had known or known of him. Bunting himself rarely spoke during the trial, so there is little known about him. There were a few outside sources who we spoke to that I guess gave a picture of a guy who was pretty charismatic… a bit of an everyman. We heard that he was incredibly generous and that he would look out for kids. For example, when he came into the Vlassakis family he went to parent-teacher interviews and always cooked. So at face value, there was something quite trustworthy about him, and I guess that was kind of important to us and our understanding of how someone like him was able to so quickly galvanize the community and work his way into a family and have them trust him. He’s a guy who brought a kind of order to the place, and that’s definitely something we wanted to show in the film.
Bunting’s mixture of menace and charm must have been difficult to find in an actor. Dan Henchell was a great find.
There’s something very likeable about Daniel. He loves being around people and talking with people – he’s very social. People gravitate toward him very easily, and there’s something trustworthy about him. As the camera gets in close to his eyes, you feel there’s something else there and you find yourself kind of leaning forward to discover what it is, but you’re not too sure about it. I guess we saw that kind of tension, that dynamic, in John Bunting and we definitely wanted to see it in the actor who was playing him.
The realness of the performances in Snowtown is astounding. It’s so understated.
Well, Dan and Richard Green were the only actors who had any kind of experience. The rest of the cast were first timers who we found at shopping malls and street castings, and who lived around where the murders occurred. They all had quite an intimate knowledge of the story we were telling and, I guess, the gravity of it. The first time actors were extremely conscious about doing a good job, and it was very important to all of us that we didn’t make them look like idiots – that their performances came off in a natural, believable, and chilling way. Which I think they do. They should be very proud of what they achieved.
Describe the impact of being a kid in Adelaide at the time these events occurred.
I lived ten minutes away from where the events took place, and I have great affection for the area. I have really wonderful memories of the place, so part of me wants to get a better understanding of how this happened so close to where I was born and grew up.
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Did that affect your approach?
It definitely meant I had a much more intimate relationship with the film. For me it was about finding a kind of beauty, not only in the people but also the place. A lot of that came from my appreciation of being in the area when I was younger. To me, an abandoned set of suburban blocks used to be my playground, so I looked at them quite fondly, whereas some people might look at them as quite barren. I guess I went into the film with a lot of affection, making sure that we were looking at this story in a very intimate way, rather than the generic, clichéd representation.
The bank where Bunting stored his victims’ remains.
That sense of respect definitely comes across in the film. There’s a pronounced lack of exploitation, which will be a surprise to anyone expecting a “slasher” type movie. How was it received by people who grew up around the story when you premiered it at the Adelaide Film Festival?
It went really well. We were extremely nervous about it, since I had just finished the film maybe two or three weeks before. So the Festival was our first real audience, and at the same time it’s the place where the events occurred. Also, for many of actors, it was the first time they had seen themselves on screen, so we were all extremely nervous.
On the other hand, we were also quite relieved to have it finally playing, because I think there was a lot of discussion about it being a horror or slasher film. It was great to have the film out there and have people respond to it, rather than speculating. It won the audience award, which was an incredible honour for us. I kind of felt like we were connecting to an audience, revealing something new about a story that had been reported in a pretty one dimensional way. I think the fact that there were a lot of other characters involved in the story surprised a lot of people. It was probably a bit different than what they had imagined or heard.
ROYCE AKERS
