Tuesday, June 12, 2012 9:15 PM

Australia has an incredibly rich film history that extends beyond Mad Max and Picnic at Hanging Rock. 

Check out these vids of some of our nations' lesser know cultural gems. 

Patrick - 1978 

Patrick is a 1978 horror film directed by Richard Franklin about comatose man kept in a Melbourne private hospital - except - he murdered his mother and has psychokinetic powers - which he doesn't exactly use to do the laundry. 

A sequel was made of this movie in Italy, with Italian actors call "Patrick Still Lives" - in 1980. 




Long Weekend - 1978 

This movie is damn scary - but you can never put your finger on why and everytime you try to tell a friend, they look at you like you're yellow. 

Still - this classic about a married couple in trouble taking a long weekend by the beach still had me locking the doors before I went to bed. Either way - you won't be camping for a while. 






The Man From Hong Kong  - 1975

Starring Hong Kong star Jimmy Wang Yu and former Bond George Lazenby this is seriously one of my favourite movies of all time. Australian or otherwise. 

For starters it has one of the best opening sequences ever - using Sky High by British Jigsaw the way it was supposed to. 

Interesting bit of trivia - Jimmy wasn't keen on white girls and put up such a fuss about the love interest he was supposed have in the script with his native Aussie co-star. 




Mad Dog Morgan - 1976

We might have imported Dennis Hopper to star in this bushranger flick about Dan Morgan - but this movie is vital in history for one very important reason. It is the most, absolutely out-of-his-mind and drug fuelled part of Hopper's Career. He simply wasn't there. Sure his body was - but not much else. 

For no other reason - see this movie. 

Also - the best final line in any movie. Ever!