15 September 2005 (released)
19 June 2010
Imagine it – you’ve just finished university, the world is your oyster and before you settle into midlife monotony there’s that nagging feeling. A feeling of want, almost need to see our wondrous planet before we destroy it. So you pack your bags, read up on ladyboys and set sights on some travelling. A word of warning though before you seek enlightenment – if you do hit Australia, don’t for the love of God breakdown in the Outback. It’s massive and apparently quite dangerous.
Based on the true events of disappearing backpackers, writer and director Greg McLean’s desolate chiller focuses on three such victims, Ben Mitchell (Nathan Phillips), Liz Hunter (Cassandra Magrath) and Kestie Morassi (Kristy Earl), who, whilst visiting the famous Wolf Creek Crater, return to their mysteriously broken down car and are finally rescued by loner bushman Mick Taylor (John Jarratt), offering to fix their car.
On towing them to his wilderness camp, Taylor is welcoming and sympathetic to the trios’ problem. Seems like a decent bloke! But despite the hospitality Taylor becomes a bit put off by the youngsters’ attitude and by the time they settle down for the night safety concerns are rife. Confirmed when Morassi awakes, tied and gagged, in a utility room. From here, we follow her actions as she frees herself and discovers the empty, blooded sleeping bags of Hunter and Mitchell, and the ensuing terror as they attempt to escape torture.
This isn’t a classic. But unlike many other sorry attempts to create tension matched with a verifiable plot, Wolf Creek has both and sets off on a tangent akin to the loneliness of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A group of young people hunted by a madman is not new, it was pioneered by one of the greats – Halloween, but it became repetitive and tiring over the next twenty-odd years. However Mick Taylor is genuinely quite terrifying and serves to ‘jack-up’ the psychopath stereotype. And like Texas, the lonely wilderness is back giving the hunter his own farm on which to prey.
The use of unknown actors adds verisimilitude both to the excitement of travelling and so the subsequent horror they are met with. It worked with Blair Witch and it works here too. Because you could quite easily meet these people in a Sydney back-street bar, you would have to be pretty cold not to wish for their survival. McLean feeds on this by delivering horrific demises and in doing so we gradually learn about Taylor’s penchant for rape and torture, which for the majority of the film is a big reason for its tension. Why is he doing this?
At no point in the film did I find it predictable and it’s refreshing not spending half the time shouting at the stupidity of the victims. Morassi is clever and there becomes a violent see-saw between safety and danger, and does what all horror should do, offers the ‘just when you think they’re safe’ ideology – if a little too early. Harking back to Texas, the final scene shows Taylor disappearing into a setting sun to deliver a final emotional stab – he outlived his victims.
As I said it’s not a classic, but it could easily be a cult favourite you get your kids to watch as initiation. Wolf Creek is simple but effective and should be watched without any intention whatsoever of donning a rucksack.
