Wolf Creek (2005)

Wolf Creek (2005) – Three stranded backpackers in remote Australia fall prey to a murderous bushman who offers to fix their car, then takes them captive.

I originally posted this review back in August, and only a couple of people read it. I feel the movie deserves a little more attention now a few more people stop by my site, so I present to you my original review with bigger images and all (I hope I got them all!) the rookie spelling mistakes fixed! Enjoy version 2.0!

Wolf Creek is set in Australia in 1999 and revolves around two British tourists, Liz Hunter (Cassandra Magrath) and Kristy Earl (Kestie Morassi) who are backpacking across the country with Ben Mitchell (Nathan Phillips – Dying Breed, Chernobyl Diaries), an Australian friend. After a bit of partying at the beginning they continue on their journey towards the famous landmark Wolf Creek National Park, which contains a giant crater formed by a 50,000-ton meteorite.

Once they visit the crater and return to their car they realise it wont start and set up camp in the hope some help passes by. Eventually their prayers are answered as a local man Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) finds them and offers to tow them to his camp to repair the car. After initial hesitation, the group allows Mick to take them to his place which they learn is an abandoned mining site several hours south of Wolf Creek. After a few drinks they get ready to sleep while the friendly Mick fixes their car. Then the true horror of the film begins as they wake the next day tied up and held hostage.

We then join the friends as they try to escape, mainly following the plight of the girls and their attempt to escape the true terror of Mick. I can’t really say much more about the plot without giving the story away and ruining it. I will say that I was very impressed with the twists and turns in the story and it was nice to see a lead character actually being quite sensible and not freaking out in the situation she was in. Pushing vehicles off cliffs, hiding, distractions and explosions are just some of the methods of escape we see attempted. Cassandra Magrath was great in her role and really impressed me. There were a couple of things she could maybe of done differently which tends to be the main criticisms of the film on the IMDB forums, but overall I thought she did a great job. All 3 friends were believable and made me care for their ordeal and I wanted them to survive. For a low-budget feature the acting really was superb. None more so than the incredible performance shown by John Jarrett as Mick. What a great villain he turns out to be. Funny, eccentric but with a sadistic nature, he was so believable and such a great bad guy. He even threw in a Crocodile Dundee reference!

Wolf Creek does have its flaws unfortunately. I was happy to overlook the majority of them as I really enjoyed the film. Yet a couple of times I found myself frustrated with something one of the friends failed to do. The age-old issue of the bad guy not being dead when he looks it was on show here, and maybe its just me but I’m pretty sure I would want to be 100% certain some guy trying to kill me was dead if I thought I’d killed him. Also, a scene involving the car garage seemed very unrealistic, for anyone that has seen the film you will know what I mean. Good guess-work perhaps? That was then followed by the best scene in he movie with a move Mick liked to call the head on a stick (that was very nearly the name I gave this site funnily enough.) Something I haven’t seen in a horror film before and maybe worth watching for that scene alone!

Visually Wolf Creek looks great. We get some aerial shots of the crater (which is a real landmark) and they look stunning, mixed in with some great shots of the surrounding area to Mick’s camp which show just how desolate and barren it is. No wonder Mick has got away with doing this for so long. Everyone knows how big the outback is, and you can see why so many people go missing out there every year. The story is said to based on true events, but facts show it only had many influences from other murders around Australia, like the Ivan Milat Backpacker Murders and the Peter Falconio murder case.

I thoroughly enjoyed Wolf Creek, and very highly recommend it. It does get a bit violent in parts, but nothing too graphic. Some of the action does look realistic and that’s maybe why people lump it in the torture porn category, but that is unfair and this film should not be dismissed in that way. It is a simple story in the sense that three backpackers are held hostage by a psycho and they try to escape, but Wolf Creek is just so damn good. Whilst you want them to escape the evil killer I couldn’t help but smile and listen to Mick as he is just so captivating and he owns this movie. The ending is good and not your typical Hollywood cop out and I can’t wait for Wolf Creek 2 which is scheduled for release later this year.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on May 6, 2013

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