IMDb RATING
7.0/10
3.6K
YOUR RATING
After being kidnapped for ransom by four criminals, a schoolteacher and her students flee into a cave and build fortifications in anticipation of a decisive battle with their captors.After being kidnapped for ransom by four criminals, a schoolteacher and her students flee into a cave and build fortifications in anticipation of a decisive battle with their captors.After being kidnapped for ransom by four criminals, a schoolteacher and her students flee into a cave and build fortifications in anticipation of a decisive battle with their captors.
- Awards
- 1 win
Marc Aden Gray
- Tommy
- (as Marc Gray)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film is loosely based on the 1972 Faraday School kidnapping of a teacher and her class by Edwin John Eastwood and Robert Clyde Boland. Eastwood later escaped from prison and repeated the crime with another teacher and his class in 1977. The Faraday kidnapping was in turn a real-life copycat crime based on a scene in the Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry (1971) where the Scorpio Killer holds a bus driver and several schoolchildren hostage.
- GoofsAfter Sally emerges from the water while she's exploring, for an instant her hair seems swept back and pressed down, clearly drenched. During the next shot, which is a close-up, her hair looks as if it had been hastily dried with a towel, even though we never even see her touch her hair.
- Quotes
Father Christmas: Get in the Van!
- Alternate versionsThe ending of the Hungarian VHS release of the film differs from all other versions. An alternate take of the policemen's questioning of Sally is used in the children threaten them with spears, which contrasts with other versions, which uses a take in which they are unarmed. During this sequence, a unique flashback also plays, in which Sally and the children are shown butchering "Father Christmas" to death, the action of which was cut away from in other versions.
- ConnectionsReferenced in A Bicentenary with Bite: Revisiting Dark Age (2017)
Featured review
Creepy, Based On A True Story
I loved watching this movie growing up as a kid, and every time I watched it I was freaked out yet I couldn't get enough of it. I knew the movie was based on a true story, and the country school setting reminded me of a place where I used to go camping. I haven't seen it in years but remember the whole movie back to front.
Set in a small country town, a class of students comprising the entire school and their teacher are kidnapped. The kidnappers wear masks that the viewer will remember forever. The teacher and kids are left to try and plan an escape from their captors.
Hardly anyone in the world is going to see this movie, and they are all missing out. See if you can find it, it's pretty good.
Set in a small country town, a class of students comprising the entire school and their teacher are kidnapped. The kidnappers wear masks that the viewer will remember forever. The teacher and kids are left to try and plan an escape from their captors.
Hardly anyone in the world is going to see this movie, and they are all missing out. See if you can find it, it's pretty good.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- På liv och död
- Filming locations
- Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia(environs)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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