''Early Frost'' is a 1982

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

starring

Guy Doleman Guy Doleman (22 November 1923 – 30 January 1996) was a New Zealand born actor, active in Australia, Britain and the United States. Early life Doleman was born in Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand, later moving to Australia. Career During the 1 ...

, Jon Blake,

Diana McLean Diana McLean is an Australian stage and television actress and voice over artist., best known for her roles as Sister Vivienne Jeffreys in TV soap opera ''The Young Doctors'' in 549 episodes from 1978 and 1981. Acting career In 1969, McLean ap ...

and David Franklin.

Plot

A number of mysterious accidents involving the deaths of women in suburban Australia, lead Val to suspect her son of mass-murder.

Cast

*Diana McLean as Val Meadows *Jon Blake as Peter Meadows *Janet Kingsbury as Peg Prentice *David Franklin as David Prentice *Daniel Cumerford as Joey Meadows *

as Mike Hayes *

Joanne Samuel Joanne Samuel (born 5 August 1957) is an Australian film and television actress, who is best known for her role as the screen wife of Mel Gibson's title character in the 1979 film ''Mad Max''. Biography and career Samuel was born in Camperdow ...

as Chris *Kit Taylor as Paul Sloane *Danny Adcock as John Meadows

Production

In 1974 David Hannay was working at

Greater Union Greater Union Organisation Pty Ltd, trading as Event Cinemas, Greater Union, GU Film House, Moonlight Cinema and Birch Carroll & Coyle (BCC Cinemas), is the largest movie exhibitor in Australia and New Zealand, with over 140 Multiplex (movie the ...

when he read a script by Terry O'Connor. Hannay was impressed and tried to raise funds for the film, and eventually succeeded through the company Filmco. Hannay tried to get

Brian Trenchard-Smith Brian Medwin Trenchard-Smith (born 1946) is an English-Australian filmmaker and author, known for his idiosyncratic and satirical low-budget genre films. His filmography covers action, science fiction, martial arts, dystopian fiction, comedy, w ...

to direct but he was busy and eventually hired New Zealand director Brian McDuffie. The movie was originally known as ''Something Wicked This Way Comes'' but in order to avoid confusion with a Disney film of the same name the movie was retitled.David Stratton, ''The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry'', Pan MacMillan, 1990 p272-274 Filming took place June to August 1981. McDuffie and Hannay clashed during the shoot and McDuffie was sacked on the day of the wrap party. McDuffie took his name off the film and no director is credited. The resulting movie has been called a representation of the worst kind of tax shelter film from the 1980s.

Release

The film was never released theatrically.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p49

References

External links

Early Frost
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Early Frost
at Letterbox DVD
''Early Frost''
at Oz Movies 1982 films Australian thriller films 1982 thriller films 1980s English-language films 1980s Australian films {{1980s-thriller-film-stub