Wolf Creek Movie Review:

Loosely based on a true story from the Australian outback in 1999, this film develops slowly from a road movie into one of the most viciously nasty horror thrillers in recent memory. But the extreme grisliness is purely gratuitous.

Liz, Kristy and Ben (Magrath, Morassi and Phillips) have a big blowout party in Broome before starting on their cross-country drive, during which they visit Wolf Creek National Park, site of a massive meteor crater. Various lively adventures and romantic entanglements ensue and, when their car dies on them, they're rescued by Mick (Jarratt), a Crocodile Dundee-esque Outback bloke. But they wake up the next morning to a whole new world of horror. If anyone gets out alive it'll be a miracle.

This final fact jeopardises the film's "true story" credentials. Or maybe this is an Open Water-style tale in which everything that follows has been pieced together from the evidence. On the other hand, as it progresses we can sense that it will either turn into a Blair Witch scare-a-thon or a Texas Chainsaw Massacre slaughter-fest. And indeed, it does go down one of these routes. And it's gut-wrenchingly awful to watch--horrifyingly violent, stomach-churningly gruesome and soaked in inevitable tragedy.

It's also extremely well-filmed--the photography is simply gorgeous, from the sun-drenched beach to the sun-baked bush. And the action is impeccably staged in a startlingly realistic way, while the script drops little hints as to what's in store--missing people, UFOs, the need for food, water and warm clothing in the Outback. Charming and relaxed performances add to the disarming ambience. And all of this combines to slowly build a horrible sense of dread long before anything bad actually happens.

But when it goes wrong, it goes unspeakably wrong. The film's final hour is staggeringly ghastly. And McLean includes far too much detail. It's so intense that we're unable to breathe, longing like the characters for it to end soon. It also feels strangely irresponsible to call this a true story. Perhaps this is McLean's idea of a joke, but families of people who have gone missing will never sleep again. Nor will many others who see this.

Rich Cline

Driving through the Outback to get to Caines, Ben (Phillips), Liz (Magrath) and Kristy (Morassi) make a stop at Australia’s largest meteorite crater in Wolf Creek. When they return to their car they discover that it will not start. Faced with spending the night in the car, the trio are relieved when Mick turns up and offers to help them out of their predicament. Gratitude soon turns to fear when they discover that Mick (Jarratt) isn’t as helpful as he first seemed.

Teenagers led to the slaughter as they travel through the remotest areas of the country has been the plot of many a horror movie but can ‘Wolf Creek’ bring something new to the premise?

With the tag line ‘based on true events’ this, like many horror movies before it, try and add more to the fear when you think that this actually took place. The problem is that when you watch the film you realise that the filmmakers have taken a few liberties with this statement.

The remoteness of the Australian Outback is a location can be exploited as a horror setting. The barrenness and the feeling of isolation is enough to strike fear into anyone but when you add in a killer that preys on unexpected passers by you are moving into very familiar territory. The story for ‘Wolf Creek’ is very similar to many other slasher films that have gone before it and unfortunately the filmmakers do nothing to make it standout from the crowd. There is absolutely nothing new here and if it wasn’t for the Australian accents you could be back in remote deserts of America all over again.

The film also takes a very long time to get going. After over an hour’s worth of road movie clichés and character development that really doesn’t give you much of an insight into travelling companions, we finally meet Mick and the action finally starts. The character of Mick is very much the stereotypical Australian that most people who live outside of the country expect to meet in the Outback but then he turns very nasty. Actor John Jarrett plays the role with great aplomb and seems to be having fun in the role which makes the final third of the movie all that more watchable. Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi do there best as Ben, Liz and Kristy but the script and lack of real character development lets them down.

‘Wolf Creek’ does nothing to remove the notion that you have you seen this in a form or another before. While the final third of the movie does get the pulse racing slightly, the lack of real character development means that you are not invested enough in the character to care what becomes of them. Still it does do enough to put you off driving through the Australian Outback.

Jamie Kelwick

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