Rumblings from Australia’s deep south: Tasmanian gothic on-screen

This article examines the current cinematic attention to Tasmania and its stories, with particular attention paid to the Gothic mode. ‘Tasmanian Gothic’ has become a by-word for the unsettling combination of Tasmania’s colonial histories and its harsh landscapes in literature, but its cinematic counterpart has virtually been ignored. It is suggested that Tasmania is experiencing a renaissance on the big screen and it is the Gothic that appears to be the most dominant mode through which it is pictured. The article then charts a history of local Tasmanian Gothic cinematic production, a hybrid vision that tends towards a combination of stylistic, thematic, historical and geographic elements. Tasmanian Gothic cinema refers not simply to productions by Tasmanian film-makers, but to the broader on-screen representation of the island, its culture and histories by a range of local, interstate and international crews. As this article suggests, Gothic cinematic representations of Tasmania are yoked by a number of persistent concerns that act in dialogue with the unique cultural and geographic positioning of Australia’s only island state.