LONG before he hit the big time in Hollywood with flicks like Dead Poets Society<\/em> and The Truman Show<\/em>, Australian director Peter Weir’s first feature film was this low-budget, pitch-black comedy\/horror, and it’s a beaut.<\/p>\n

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The Waldo brothers, Arthur (Camilleri) and George (Scully), are driving their EK Holden through rural Australia, hoping to find work. As night is falling, they spot a sign advising of employment in a town called Paris, so they follow the directions down a winding dirt road. But a sudden blast of bright light blinds driver George and the EK careens down a slope, killing him.<\/p>\n
After waking up in Paris’s hospital, the shell-shocked Arthur is taken under the wing of the town’s mayor (Meillon), who lets him stay with him and his wife Beth (Jaffer) and two daughters.<\/p>\n
| Aussie movie review: Running on Empty (1982)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
However, unbeknownst to Arthur, his ‘accident’ was anything but – the inhabitants of Paris have been shining bright lights into drivers’ eyes to deliberately cause crashes in order to keep the town’s economy afloat. The cars are torched and looted, and any survivors have their clothes and valuables pinched before being subjected to the bizarre experiments of the town doctor (Miles), leaving them in a vegetative state. It seems that Arthur has been spared only because the mayor has taken a shine to him.<\/p>\n