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Kristy (Kestie Morassi) has escaped from the camp. She has been tortured and beaten, but she runs, without shoes, until she finds the road. An old man stops to help her. While he fetches a blanket from the back of his car, we hear a shot. The next shot kills the old man.
Curator’s notes
One of the great skills in a horror movie is the manipulation of hope – and this scene is an excellent example of how Greg McLean understands that. Mick is able to put a hole in the thermos from so far away that we barely hear the shot. It’s unlikely he was aiming anywhere else, as he wants to enjoy the moment when the old man has a flicker of recognition before his death. The scene also shows off the skill of Will Gibson’s camerawork. Note the way he tilts the camera as she reaches the road, so that we’re constantly aware of the horizon, but always at a slight angle, off the horizontal. The use of the white line on the road is also clever – the scene would not be as graphically strong if it had been shot on a road without the white border lines. The white line is an almost subliminal suggestion of hope – it should lead to safety. Maybe she can make it, we think.
