The feeling of a languid summer permeates through Picnic at Hanging Rock—the type of summer where time slows and existence seems like a dream. While picnicking at Hanging Rock for St. Valentine’s Day, the girls and their accompanying adults sit in a timeless daze—so timeless in fact, that watches stop and sleep abounds. When four students—Miranda, Marion, Irma, and Edith—decide to explore Hanging Rock, their adventure is shrouded in innocence. The dreamlike quality is short-lived, however, because Miranda, Marion, and Irma disappear into the rock.
The setting of the film with its golden hues and summertime beauty juxtaposes the horror scaffolding lying underneath. Though not traditionally considered a horror film, Picnic at Hanging Rock exposes its audience to a type of unconventional horror—horror steeped in the divine power of the natural world.
As the girls ascend on Hanging Rock, the score swells with power and something sinister. Director Peter Weir leaves us with these crumbs of discomfort, discordant in contrast with the stunning shots of Hanging Rock’s majesty. Miranda, Marion, and Irma quickly become part of the rock’s consciousness, its power moving through them and directing them on their ascension. Edith acts as a voice of reason but stands no chance once the other three begin their exploration. Even her appearance is an anomaly to the other three—when the police ask Michael, a young man who saw the girls on the rock, about who he saw, he describes Edith as “dumpy.”
In succumbing to Hanging Rock’s power, Miranda, Marion, and Irma take off their shoes, even though Edith protests. The girls then fall asleep in the rock, in tandem with their fellow students and teachers who slumber at the picnic. Simultaneously, the girls wake from their slumber and ascend even higher as Edith watches on. She calls out to them but receives no response, so she runs back to her peers, screaming.
At the same time, Miss McCraw, one of their teachers, decides to explore the rock. She, also, is enraptured by Hanging Rock and, according to Edith, ascends the rock in her undergarments—never to be found. The rock’s display of sheer power over the three girls brings horror to the forefront. The power of the natural world is too complex; we don’t know what happened and never will, because the girls went missing in the vast, unknowable expanse.
Still, though, members of the community attempt to locate the girls without any success. They scour Hanging Rock and the surrounding area for the three girls and Miss McCraw but find no clues as to what might have happened. The only person to receive any kind of message is Michael, who bears witness to the consciousness of Hanging Rock in his dreams. These dreams show him the moments leading up to the girls’ experience, memories he should not have access to. In this way, Hanging Rock acts as a controller, only allowing certain people access to the truth of its power.
Michael then searches for the girls and comes upon the same passageway where they disappeared. As he attempts to ascend, he becomes weak and unable to walk, beholden to the mercy of Hanging Rock. The rock gives him a scrap of clothing, and he is able to find Irma, who is still breathing and survives, though has no memory of what happened to her or the others.
In taking the girls, Hanging Rock exerts its primordial divinity across the community. This divinity, though, appears to have been ever-present in the film.
Before her death, Sara, a girl who idolized Miranda, remarks that Miranda knew she wouldn’t come back, implying that Miranda intended to succumb to Hanging Rock. The chaos in the aftermath extends to the headmistress Mrs. Appleyard, who dies off-screen at the end of the film, completing its takeover.
Hanging Rock’s ability to exert control over the community in the film points to its existence as a higher power. The natural world is unknowable; it was here before human life and will remain afterward. Miranda, Marion, and Miss McCraw remain with Hanging Rock as sacrifices to a higher being—the consciousness of the earth. By succumbing to the rock’s power—consciously or not—the girls and their teacher unleashed a reminder to hold reverence and fear for what the more-than-human world can do. We are small and powerless in the face of the natural world.
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To read the novel the film is based on, order the Picnic at Hanging Rock on paperback.