Evil Angels (film)

Evil Angels
Directed byFred Schepisi
Screenplay byRobert Caswell
Fred Schepisi
Based onEvil Angels
1985 book
by John Bryson
Produced byVerity Lambert
Starring
CinematographyIan Baker
Edited byJill Bilcock
Music byBruce Smeaton
Distributed byWarner Bros. (United States)
Roadshow Entertainment (Australia)[1]
Cannon Films (International)
Release dates
  • 3 November 1988 (1988-11-03) (Australia)
  • 11 November 1988 (1988-11-11) (United States)
  • 19 May 1989 (1989-05-19) (South Africa)
  • 26 May 1989 (1989-05-26) (United Kingdom)
Running time
121 minutes
CountriesAustralia
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15 million[2]
Box office$6.9 million (United States)[3]

Evil Angels (released as A Cry in the Dark outside Australia and New Zealand) is a 1988 Australian drama film directed by Fred Schepisi. The screenplay by Schepisi and Robert Caswell is based on John Bryson's 1985 book of the same name. It chronicles the case of Azaria Chamberlain, a nine-week-old baby girl who disappeared from a campground near Uluru in August 1980, and the struggle of her parents, Michael Chamberlain and Lindy Chamberlain, to prove their innocence to a public convinced that they were complicit in her death. Meryl Streep and Sam Neill star as the Chamberlains.

The film was released less than two months after the Chamberlains were exonerated by the Northern Territory Court of Appeals of all charges filed against them.[4] The film received generally favourable reviews, with Streep's performance receiving high praise and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, but was a box office disappointment, grossing only $6.9 million against its $15 million budget.

  1. ^ "Evil Angels (35mm)". Australian Classification Board. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  2. ^ Maddox, Garry. "Next year's 10 Best Films." Sydney Morning Herald, 13 July 1987, p. 16.
  3. ^ "Box Office Information for: 'A Cry in the Dark'. " Box Office Mojo. Retrieved: 14 April 2012.
  4. ^ Harper, Dan. "Review: 'A Cry in the Dark'." Archived 25 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine SensesOfCinema.com, March 2001. Retrieved: 25 April 2008.