Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous.
Review: A very delicate piece of Art.
This is not for everyone, I think; many would be bored to tears. It is indeed correct that there's an 'open' ending; pretentious or not {I don't think it's pretentious}, Picnic... is definitely worth recommending if you like mysteries, beauty, style, and moody atmospheres.
I won't attempt to describe what I thought the movie about; each may decide for his/her own whether the time was well spent or not. It sure made me think, and this is something I generally prefer to do.
Scenery and soundtrack are absolutely of high-quality and do both enhance, rather than detract, the main feature.
Basic story is captivating, but it's the many other 'layers' that lift the movie above a mere general plot.
This is not something that I would recommend to all.
Rating:
Summary: VICTORIAN NIGHTMARE
Review: This movie is quite simply about an unseen "invisible" monster that lives on a volcanic mountain in the remotest part of Australia. One day a group of repressed private school girls get the privilege of having a picnic at the base of the "rock." A few of the girls decide to go exploring - two of which never return. They vanish without a trace along with a teacher who ran up the volcano to try and find the girls. It's all very creepy. The town's folks get concerned all "wanting some answers." The head mistress of the private school becomes very unbalanced and starts hitting the sauce pretty hard. You can feel her frustration as she tries to deal with this horrible thing. So, in typical Dickensonian style, she starts berating a prior orphan who is only attending the school because of some unseen benefactor who is way behind in paying the tuition. The girl does not handle this stress very well. All in all, this film is really haunting and impressive - I wish I could have seen the monster or ghost or yeti that was stealing people, but some things are left to the imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: This is a very atmospheric, haunting, and visually interesting film based on a true event--the disappearance of several students and a teacher during an outing in the Australian outback during the early 1900's. They were never seen, or heard from, again. The story offers no explanation. This adds to the eeriness. One is left wonderfully frustrated and perplexed by the disappearance of the actual people, let alone the characters in the film. Peter Weir presents a mystery wrapped in an enigma; a very subtle film that teases, haunts, and captivates.
Rating: 
Summary: SLOW PACE PUT ME TO SLEEP!
Review: A good flick if you like slow-paced eerie ghost-like stories that have no answers or resolution.
Rating:
Summary: A dream within a dream
Review: About as lyrical as lyrical gets in cinema, this haunting film from director Peter Weir is a masterpiece of ineffable evocation, an enigmatic parable, a beautiful, idyllic nightmare in bright daylight. Music, photography, acting, writing and editing all work together to brilliant effect. The Criterion DVD looks terrific, doing justice to the beauty and detail of the outdoor images in particular.By the way, if you like this film, I strongly suggest you seek out the work of a little-known genius writer named Robert Aickman. This film is very reminscent of his singular body of strange work, and works on your subconscious in a similar way.
Rating:
Summary: Leaves you wondering....but in a good way...
Review: I am a middle School student who is doing this encridible story as a play for my theatre arts class. This gives you a good insight on the character, because our class is told to discover our characters background, because it is not told. Many people are disapointed that we dont know what happened to the girls. It drove me nuts for a while, but then i accepted it. The movie itself is breathtaking. The scenes at the rock...theres just no way to describe it. I didn't notice that there were faces in the rocks. I was so envoloped in the movie. Miranda has one of the best parts in the movie, her lines are so mind-enveloping. The way the girls walked out off the screen, and the way Miranda speaks, its almost as though she knows what is coming. The story after the rock is very interesting. It builds on the friendship of Michael and Albert, there lives eventually depend upon each other. All the realationships in the story and how everyone hs a connection to someone makes this story even better. There is speculation that Mrs. Appleyard killed Sara Wayborne and Dora and Reg, but this is just teenage speculation. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a good scare. This movie isn't so much a horror movie as it is a mystery. I actually got chills from it and had trouble getting to sleep the following nigh. It turns out there are a few people who ACTUALLY know what happened...for real...I am one of them. Secret of Hanging Rock is the final chapter which replaces chapter 3 and tells what happened to the girls. It was released after the death of the author, her final wish. The publishers requested she remove it for the original release. The book is quite expensive, but if your mind is obsessed with finding out...
Rating: 
Summary: Not a mystery---an enigma
Review: It's a challenge to review this movie because there are 2 extant versions of it. In the director's cut, recently issued, 7 minutes of expository material was deleted. Most of the cuts were probably wise, but one cut, in particular, changes the character of the movie somewhat. To those who don't already know, this Victorian melodrama concerns 4 girls who supposedly disappeared on Hanging Rock in 1900, on Valentines Day, Saturday. (this last fact itself could be mistaken as a clue, since Valentine's Day occurred on a Wednesday that year; but, it's most probable that Valentine's Day really did occur on a Saturday, since most people of the era followed the Julian Calendar) The first 40 minutes of the film build to an intolerable suspense as we wait anxiously while we watch the girls disappear into the ether. The last part of the film follows the subsequent events; search attempts, a couple of romantic lietmotifs, the decline of the school, the disintegration of the harridan who functions as the schoolmarm, etc. One thing that struck me most about this movie is the word "Poetry". Poetry is recited throughout the movie, referred to a number of times-- the movie itself is poetry. It reminds me a lot of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. A little bit makes sense; much does not. It is left to the viewer to interpret. Is Hanging Rock a sexual allegory? Its appearance is phallic. Is the Rock alive? Repeated shots reveal face-like rock formations. If the rock is alive, were they devoured by it? Did the girls get abducted by a UFO? A reference is made to a mysterious red cloud. A time warp? All the clocks at the site mysteriously stop. The sexual allusions are numerous, almost prurient. Before the girls disappear, they are in a state of undress. Did the girls (and the boy) get raped by a mysterious being? Both a girl who returns, and the boy who goes after to look for them, show signs of rape trauma. But yet, the doctor refers to the girl as "intact". That's a Victorian euphemism referring to their virginity. Most other reviewers have glossed over some obvious lesbianism. I think it's important to mention. About the cuts--frankly, I can see why most of them were made, except the ending, which is made abrupt by the cuts. The original version showed a photo set of the "real girls", which made another mystery; is the film based on a real event? The disclaimer at the end says "characters and events are purely fictional". But is this a sly way of saying the movie's a roman a clef? (One is reminded of The Greek Tycoon) The deletion of that tiny shot eradicates that mystery to some extent. For shame. Many people probably think without question it's pure fiction, now. In short: brutally poetic, NOT for action fiends. Females will probably like this movie more than males. If you're the type, this movie will make you wonder forever. If you're not, you'll be bored out of your tree. 5 stars for the original, 4 stars for the Director's Cut...
Rating:
Summary: It's about the questions...
Review: ...not about finding the answers. Finding a convenient answer to what really happened to the missing girls and teacher is incidental to the effect of the disappearance on the survivors and surrounding community. Some things in life just can't be so easily explained, and who is to say that we'd like the answers anyhow? For creating a haunting atmosphere, hats off to the cast and Peter Weir and his production team!
Rating:
Summary: nice imagery and music, but that's about it.
Review: i can understand why some would like it and some would hate it. there are some nice pieces of music combined with images, which gives a foreboding atmosphere, but the movie goes no where. i think it's great to use your imagination, but there needs to be a base to build it upon. this film had a few girls getting lost and that's it. in a way this had a similar concept with blair witch, but in blair witch at least you could make your own predictions. there was no background story of the rock that held up. they were just rocks with what looked to be faces in them, oooooo!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't really go nowhere
Review: 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' doesn't really go nowhere. The story is kind of creepy, but there are times when it just lingers on and on. I felt basically the same in the end as I did from the beginning; the film had no resolution. It presents us with the story and that's about it. It fails to explain some of the key events of the true story. For example, shortly before the girls disappeared, why did they not listen to the chubby girl's screams? To me, it felt like the director made it up. Nice soundtrack though.
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