The Waiting Place

The festival was inundated with New Zealand digital features this year. Most cheerfully exploit the new technology to essentially frivolous ends with wildly hit-and-miss results. This grim tale from the fabled dark heartland of the New Zealand psyche was not at all typical. It reveals an authentically cinematic imagination at work, extending what, for better or worse, is a solid local tradition.

– NZ Film Festival director Bill Gosden, in the 2001 Wellington Film Festival programme, page 142

I think it goes back to the early 80s stuff that was coming out of this country. I love those films. They go on about dark films in this country but there have been a lot more lighter films coming out in recent years. It's about time we had a throwback to the dark era.

– Director Pablo Araus on The Waiting Place harking back to dark 1980s Kiwi dramas, The NZ Herald, 10 July 2001

Susie? It's me, Belmont. I made it out Susie, I did it.

– Belmont (David Perrett) makes a call to his wife Susie (Belinda Heaslip)

It got very scary around the place. Certain ghostly things starting happening, voices around the buildings which I personally heard — and I am very sceptical about that sort of thing.

– Producer Robert Rowe on filming in a disused psychiatric hospital, The NZ Herald, 10 July 2001