No. 022 - 'Went Up The Hill' by Samuel Van Grinsven (2025)

Went Up The Hill is a mature, eerie and chilling sophomore film from Australian-New Zealand writer/director Samuel Van Grinsven.

Jack (Dacre Montgomery) arrives out of the mist, late to the funeral of Elizabeth in the cold and bleak mountains of New Zealand. Elizabeth is survived by her two loves; the grand house she designed as an architect (and now in which she lies) and her partner Jill (Vicky Krieps). Jack's presence is quickly questioned by Helen (Sarah Peirse) uncertain as to why he has appeared at this small, private service. Eventually he reveals that he is Elizabeth's estranged son and has arrived at the request of Jill, but with no memory of making that request, Jill only lets him stay out of consideration for Elizabeth's wishes.

On the first night in this stony, isolated house, the wind howls and moans, awakening Jack. As he hesitantly enters the living room in which Elizabeth's coffin rests, he sees Jill on a mattress next to the plinth. Her face contorted as she stares at Jack; she only responds after a question. What becomes clear is that Elizabeth, though deceased, remains present, possessing Jill's body to communicate with Jack. Her wish is to be reunited with Jill, beyond the veil, and therefore requires Jack's help. As Elizabeth's spirit alternates between Jack and Jill, escalating her control, the pair must confront their fractured relationship to Elizabeth.

Went Up The Hill is inherently about a shared grief personified between two strangers. Dacre and Vicky deliver finely-tuned performances, needing to capture nuanced differences between their relationship to the deceased while sharing characterisations during possession. Dacre, despite his large build at times being used for menacing effect, shrinks and regresses to Jack's violent and traumatic childhood in which he was taken away and adopted out (at the instigation of Helen). Vicky writhes her face and deepens her voice when Elizabeth is in control, harking back too to the control Elizabeth held over the couple's lives.

The haunting, suffocating atmosphere is strongly supported by the cinematography of Tyson Perkins. Perkins plays with scale effectively to never quite settle the exact dimensions and distance between spaces. The mountains, gorgeously shot, at times loom large, and rooms seem to have no walls. This is particularly stark during the nighttime haunting scenes in which Jack and Jill appear to be in a black void. Not only does it create an image that lingers long after the film finishes, but heightens our sense of the eerie.

Much of the film is washed in blacks, browns, greys, beiges and blues. Dull, distancing, cold colours are in the costuming, the scenery, the house, all servicing the heavy weight of grief in the film. But, in the third act, this colour scheme is sharply disrupted to strong effect with bold moments of red, again creating memorable images.

Less of a horror, Went Up The Hill is an unsettling and eerie film that returns ghost stories to folklore roots; that of unfinished business. It takes a children's nursery rhyme and plunges it into the icy lake of adulthood, producing a mature film unlike much seen on Australian screens today. It feels like a spiritual successor to the prestige Australian films of the early 2000s (think Somersault and Jindabyne) in atmosphere and delivery. And it is a film that cements Grinsven's place in Australia's contemporary film scene.

Fleapit Pick of the Week

Pink Flamingo is back with a stellar series across October titled 'Nightmare Logic' billed as "a finely curated selection of the worst day of other people’s lives." The programme includes both old and new features such as Frank Henenlotter's Brain Damage (1988) and the stop-motion The Wolf House (Cristóbal León, Joaquin Cociña, 2018). It kicks off this Wednesday with Deadbeat At Dawn (Jim Van Bebber, 1988). The full details are here.

Screenings: Thursday 25 SEPT. - Wednesday 01 OCT.

Inner West Libraries Film Club
Comic Book Confidential (Ron Mann, 1988)
Friday

Pink Flamingo Cinema
Deadbeat at Dawn (Jim Van Bebber, 1988)
Wednesday

Slippery Screenings
Wind Across the Everglades (Nicholas Ray, 1958)
Friday

VHS Fleapit
Twin Dragon Encounter (Paul Dunlop, 1986)
Tuesday

AFTRS Library
Take Out (Sean Baker & Shih-Ching Tsou, 2004)
Tuesday

Italian Film Festival | Sept. - Oct.
La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino, 2025)
Daily (except Thursday and Tuesday)

Hayden Orpheum | selected highlights
The Travellers (Bruce Beresford, 2025)
Australian Premiere
Tuesday

Kangaroo (Kate Woods, 2025)
Daily

Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981)
4K Restoration
Friday

In The Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
25th Anniversary
Saturday

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
4K Restoration
Sunday

Golden Age Cinema | selected highlights
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
Thursday

Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
Friday

Return Home (Ray Argall, 1990)
Sunday

Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor, 2025)
Sunday & Wednesday

Blood Simple (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1984)
Tuesday

Ritz Cinemas, Randwick | selected highlights
Kangaroo (Kate Woods, 2025)
Daily

But Also John Clarke (Lorin Clarke, 2025)
Thursday, Friday & Sunday

Jim Jarmusch Less Is More (link)
Permanent Vacation (1981)
Thursday

Cult Classics (link)
Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)
Saturday & Monday

Celluloid Film (link)
Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
Friday

Classic Matinees (link)
The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
Saturday & Monday

Make It Musical (link)
The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
Sunday & Wednesday

Meet Cute (link)
High Fidelity (Stephen Frears, 2000)
Tuesday

Dendy Newtown | selected highlights
Kangaroo (Kate Woods, 2025)
Daily

Lesbian Space Princess (Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese, 2025)
Daily

Stelarc - Suspending Disbelief (Richard Moore, John Doggett-Williams, 2025)
Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Monday

Cells Out (link)
Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
Thursday

Night Shift (link)
The City of Lost Children (Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1995)
Daily

Palace Cinemas | selected highlights
Kangaroo (Kate Woods, 2025)
Daily

But Also John Clarke (Lorin Clarke, 2025)
Daily

Cult Vault (link)
Goldeneye (Martin Campbell, 1995)
Monday

Matinee Memories (link)
A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964)
Saturday

Art Gallery of NSW
Film Series: Focus on queer 中文 cinema
Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997)
Saturday

Film Series: Brazil! Brazil! A century of cinema
The Guns (Ruy Guerra, 1964)
Sunday

Land in Anguish (Glauber Rocha, 1967)
Wednesday