History YMMV / PicnicAtHangingRock

** Anticipating a notable future film about a boarding school, toward the end Mlle. de Poitiers says "[[Film/AuRevoirLesEnfants Au revoir, les enfants!"]]
** The opening credits specifically mention Gheorghe Zamfir and his pan flute playing as a prominent part of the soundtrack. But anyone who watched American TV in TheEighties and TheNineties will chuckle on seeing his name, since there was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ISe0fdoaPs cheesy commercial]] for an album by him that aired incessantly.

* EpilepticTrees: Hoo boy. At least one actual book of theories about what happened has been published: Yvonne Rousseau's ''The Murders at Hanging Rock''. Rousseau discusses these possibilities: the girls went to AnotherDimension, there was some sort of [[SupernaturalFiction supernatural occurrence]], the story takes place in an AlternateUniverse, they were murdered [[spoiler:by Michael and Albert]], or they became victims of an AlienAbduction.

* EpilepticTrees: Hoo boy. At least one actual book of theories about what happened has been published.

* HilariousInHindsight: Anticipating a notable future film about a boarding school, toward the end Mlle. de Poitiers says "[[Film/AuRevoirLesEnfants Au revoir, les enfants!"]]

* LesYay: We already know the RomanticTwoGirlFriendship between Miranda and Sarah, but there's some subtext between Mlle de Poitiers and Miranda, Mlle de Poitiers and Irma, and between Miss [=McCraw=] and Mrs Appleyard.

* OlderThanTheyThink: A teenager named Tony Ingram got approval from Joan Lindsay to make a low-budget DIY adaptation of the novel called ''The Day of Saint Valentine'', but he was forced to abandon it with only a few minutes of footage completed after the book's formal film rights were sold. It's been included as an extra in some of the finished film's DVD releases.

* TheWoobie: Sara and her tragic character arc. She's an orphan who has HiddenDepths, but is treated like dirt by Mrs. Appleyard, and is viewed as eccentric by her classmates, except Miranda, who she has a deep bond with. Then Miranda disappears.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic

* RetroactiveRecognition: Jacki Weaver, who plays the maid, Minnie, has, much more recently, achieved two Oscar nominations.

* HoYay: The bromance between Michael and Albert in the novel.
** LesYay: We already know the RomanticTwoGirlFriendship between Miranda and Sarah, but there's some subtext between Mlle. de Poitiers and Miranda, Mlle. de Poitiers and Irma, and between Miss [=McCraw=] and Mrs. Appleyard.
* ParanoiaFuel: If you go walking on Hanging Rock, you just might vanish into thin air and never be seen again no matter how hard people look...

* GeniusBonus: In the classroom scene with Sara, Mrs. Appleyard confuses Felicia Hemans' "Casabianca" with Longfellow's "The Wreck of the Hesperus"--one of the signs that she may be a ConArtist.

* NightmareFuel: There's something deeply unsettling about an apparent mystery story where the mystery never gets explained.

* {{Tearjerker}}: Sarah is an incredibly tragic figure. She spent her childhood at the [[OrphanageOfFear Ballarat orphanage]]. Miranda, her only friend [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship whom she all but worships]], disappears [[NeverFoundTheBody suddenly and without a trace]]. Bullied by [[SadistTeacher Mrs. Appleyard and Miss Lumley]]. Her guardian [[PoorCommunicationKills forgets to pay her tuition and can't be contacted]], so she [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide rather than be sent back to the orphage]]. Never reunited with [[LongLostRelative her brother]], who was [[OneDegreeOfSeparation in the same village the whole time]]. And she's [[HarmfulToMinors only thirteen years old]].

* Tearjerker: Sarah is an incredibly tragic figure. She spent her childhood at the [[OrphanageOfFear Ballarat orphanage]]. Miranda, her only friend [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship whom she all but worships]], disappears [[NeverFoundTheBody suddenly and without a trace]]. Bullied by [[SadistTeacher Mrs. Appleyard and Miss Lumley]]. Her guardian [[PoorCommunicationKills forgets to pay her tuition and can't be contacted]], so she [[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide rather than be sent back to the orphage]]. Never reunited with [[LongLostRelative her brother]], who was [[OneDegreeOfSeparation in the same village the whole time]]. And she's [[HarmfulToMinors only thirteen years old]].

** LesYay: We already know the RomanticTwoGirlFriendship between Miranda and Sarah, but there's some subtext between Miranda and Mlle. de Poitiers and between Miss [=McCraw=] and Mrs. Appleyard.

** LesYay: We already know the RomanticTwoGirlFriendship between Miranda and Sarah, but there's some subtext between Miranda and Mlle. de Poitiers and between Miss McCraw and Mrs. Appleyard.

* FanDislikedExplanation: Probably ''the'' FanDislikedExplanation. The novel made its readers produce thousands of guesses about what is behind the girls' disappearances - from [[spoiler: the whole thing being the work of a rapist/kidnapper]] to [[spoiler: the headmistress molesting girls and driving them to suicide]] to [[spoiler: the rock itself trapping them inside]]. After the author's death, the eighteenth chapter with the explanation was finally released. As it turned out, [[spoiler: [[MakesAsMuchSenseInContext the girls turned into lizards]] [[GainaxEnding and got sucked into a time warp]]]]. The fans felt that it was anticlimactic and nonsensical. Even Peter Weir, to whom the author showed the ending chapter, adviced her not to publish it and didn't include it into a movie.

* ParanoiaFuel: If you go walking on Hanging Rock, you just might vanish into thin air and never be seen again no matter how hard people look...

* FanDislikedExplanation: Probably ''the'' FanDislikedExplanation. The novel made its readers produce thousands of guesses about what is behind the girls' disappearances - from [[spoiler: the whole thing being the work of a rapist/kidnapper]] to [[spoiler: the headmistress molesting girls and driving them to suicide]] to [[spoiler: the rock itself trapping them inside]]. After the author's death, the eighteenth chapter with the explanation was finally released. As it turned out, [[spoiler: [[MakesAsMuchSenseInContext the girls turned into lizards]] [[GainaxEnding and got sucked into a time warp]]]]. The fans felt that it was anticlimactic and nonsensical. Even Gregory Weir, to whom the author showed the ending chapter, adviced her not to publish it and didn't include it into a movie.

* FanDislikedExplanation: Probably ''the'' FanDislikedExplanation. The novel made its readers produce thousands of guesses about what is behind the girls' disappearances - from [[spoiler: the whole thing being the work of a rapist/kidnapper]] to [[spoiler: the headmistress molesting girls and driving them to suicide]] to [[spoiler: the rock itself trapping them inside]]. After the author's death, the eighteenth chapter with the explanation was finally released. As it turned out, [[spoiler: [[MakesAsMuchSenseInContext the girls turned into lizards]] [[GainaxEnding and got sucked into a time warp]]]]. The fans felt that it was anticlimactic and nonsensical. Even Gregory Weir, to whom the author showed the ending chapter, adviced her not to published it and didn't include it into a movie.

* NightmareFuelUnleaded: There's something deeply unsettling about an apparent mystery story where the mystery never gets explained.

* NightmareFuel: There's something deeply unsettling about an apparent mystery story where the mystery never gets explained.