Director Kurzel and screenwriter Grant adapt the horrifying true story of the Snowtown (aka the "bodies in the barrels") murders. It's an incredibly difficult - but important - watch and features a terrifying performance by Daniel Henshall

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 18, 2025

Stark, gloomy, and fuelled with anguish and despair, Snowtown is an unrelenting film that once watched, will never be forgotten.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 3, 2022

The great strength of Snowtown, aside from superb acting performances, is the way it shows how domination, fear and control operate on vulnerable people.

| Jan 27, 2022

The film is a fascinating psychological study, both on the effects on the audience and the arc of the characters as we are see them (and ourselves) slowly consumed by this bleak, murderous, poverty stricken town in rural Australia.

| Jan 12, 2021

Dark, claustrophobic and depressing, but it's too destructive for its own good.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 8, 2019

If you liked William Friedkin's Killer Joe, then this film is loosely similar, revealing how an economically and morally deprived area can fall prey to a Faustian figure.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 24, 2019

A truly effective film that will stay with you long after the credits roll.

| Feb 28, 2019

If, however, you want to know how violence, intimidation and prejudice can thrive unchecked for a very long time, The Snowtown Murders is here to show you in tragically credible terms.

| Original Score: B | Feb 6, 2019

If you can mentally prepare yourself for the harrowing tale at the heart of this emotionally devastatingly drama, you'll discover a beautifully-filmed horror story, far more psychologically affecting that anything else you'll see this year.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 5, 2018

The pure terror of rural mundaneness and geographical remoteness turning savage and deadly is ultimately the most stirring and chilling notion presented by Snowtown.

| Oct 4, 2017

I did not know this film was based on a true story until the closing credits, which makes this story so much more terrifying. Director Justin Kurzel crafted a raw feel that will leave you slack-jawed.

| Nov 16, 2013

Unflinchingly nasty, graphic and gut-wrenchingly powerful, Snowtown is a film that dares you to look away, but compels you to keep watching. As portraits of serial killers go, this deserves to be hung on the wall next to Henry.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 28, 2012

The grimy social realism and gurgling torture scenes place director Justin Kurzel's startling debut midway between Animal Kingdom and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 19, 2012

Your appreciation of this Australian horror movie will depend on whether you think its artistry justifies its unrelenting ugliness.

| Mar 15, 2012

The film is a chilling study of an evil, dominant personality and his victims.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 15, 2012

It has no particular observations about the mind of psychopaths that is worth the incredibly nasty feeling you get from sitting through its incredibly grim two hours.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Mar 12, 2012

Is it the Aussie Gummo, or a true-crime drama that takes itself way too seriously? Can it be both simultaneously?

| Mar 12, 2012

Observing the character's regular and repeated acts of cruelty becomes numbing after awhile.

Full Review | Mar 9, 2012

Although it builds quiet, thick suspense and lacks the bravado and sensationalism of most films of the genre, that doesn't always work to its advantage.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 9, 2012

Overlong and grim to the point where some scenes are virtually unwatchable...

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 2, 2012