A dream vacation turns into a nightmare in this taut thriller from Australia. Ben (Nathan Phillips), Lizzie (Cassandra Magrath), and Kristy (Kestie Morassi) are three friends who, after a night of celebratory drinking, hit the road for a trip to Wolf Creek National Park, where they plan to spend a week hiking and surfing. The three friends are happy to be spending time together, especially after Ben makes the happy discovery that Lizzie is as infatuated with him as he is with her. However, after
a long day on foot, Ben, Lizzie, and Kristy make the unpleasant discovery that their car's battery is dead, leaving them stuck in the middle of nowhere. Help arrives in the form of Mick (John Jarratt), a burly but good-natured outdoorsman who happens upon them; Mick tells them that he can fix their car, and offers to give them a ride to his place down the road. Grateful but a bit nervous around the gregarious stranger, Ben, Lizzie, and Kristy offer Mick a wealth of thanks for his help, and give him some money for his troubles before they fall asleep around the campfire. The next morning, the travelers find themselves bound, gagged, drugged, and separated from one another, and they realize Mick is not the good Samaritan they imagined. Wolf Creek was the first feature film from writer and director Greg McLean. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
There's no substitute for bad taste. And this one has it double-barreled, both in the timing of its release and as a movie, one said to be loosely based on fact.
Despite the obvious influences of the original "Chainsaw," "Hills Have Eyes," "Last House," and other kidnap-terror films, you can't predict what is going to happen in this film.
It is almost as if a hardcore survival horror film had been infiltrated (and slyly undermined) by the quieter mysticism of Peter Weir's Picnic At Hanging Rock...
It's predictable, it has a romantic plot that fizzles instead of sizzles, it has a plodding first half, and it serves up a platter of gratuitous gore that could feed an army of slasher-film lovers.
Wolf Creek is a damn fine film with just a few flaws, but if you go in with the knowledge that it's not perfect like some have implied, chances are you'll dig it, too.
The plot is absolutely asinine and totally ridiculous but this typical grindhouse movie was quite a thrill ride and unlike most modern horror movies didn't make me laugh. This independently made kidnap horror flick "based" on a true story is an exceptional debut feature for McLean and a very unpredictable one.
January 1, 2012
Michael Miller
Super Reviewer
Three young tourists travelling in the vast expanses of the outback accept a lift from a seemingly friendly frontiersman but he soon reveals himself to be a sadistic predator. Horror films for the most part are like theme park rides; they provide a few cheap thrills and shocks, and when they are over, it's back to
normality. There are no monsters, zombies or vampires in real life. The most disturbing thing about Wolf Creek is that there ARE people like Mick Taylor in the world; men who see other human beings as animals to be preyed upon and who can cheerfully torture and kill them without conscience. I was gripped by this film as soon as he appeared on the screen, the biggest kick in the gut is the sheer believability of it all; the victims seem like genuine people rather than the usual Hollywood rent-a-bimbos and the violence is all the more gruesome because it is NOT presented in a sensationalist or exploitative way. In fact, Quentin Tarantino himself described it as "the scariest film I've ever seen". The Hitcher for grown ups.
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