Wolf Creek (Film Review)
2005 Dimension Films
Written and Directed by: Greg McLean
Starring: John Jarratt, Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, and Kestie Morassi
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 104 Minutes (Original Cut)
The Nicsperiment Score: 6/10
Two British girls backpacking across Australia meet up with their Australian male friend, who buys a car so the trio can visit the remote Wolf Creek Crater. The trip goes innocently enough, as the three have a peaceful, 20-something good time. Eventually, they reach the crater successfully, and there's even a burgeoning romance between the boy and one of the girls that leads to a kiss. The trip couldn't be going better...until the car won't start. Luckily for the kids, a large Australian man named Mick shows up. He seems to be every Australian male stereotype made flesh, their own personal Crocodile Dundee, there to rescue them. But soon, and quite brutally, the trio find that Mick is not what he seems.
The first hour of Wolf Creek is paradoxically both carefree and suspenseful. It has all the hallmarks of an -utback travelogue. The rural desert of Australia might as well be the surface of the moon, but the well-cast Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, and Kestie Morassi seem to be having a great time exploring it together. At the same time, writer/director, Greg McLean, does an excellent job building a sense of dread. There's a sense that something malignant is watching this trio, that something evil wants to destroy them...and then it does.
John Jarratt is perfectly cast as the sociopathic, unimaginably evil Mick. He is a caricature of the type of man you'd want to get you out of a jam, which makes his incredibly aberrant behavior all the more horrific. However, I have a tough time recommending the final 45 minutes Wolf Creek. It's literally, "powerful, sociopathic man tortures three innocent, helpless people in their 20s." The trio are frustratingly incompetent at facing Mick, but that's essentially the hook of the film--it claims to be based upon true events of backpacker murder in Australia, and this is, realistically, how things would go if three completely unprepared and unarmed individuals had to unexpectedly faceoff with evil outback Rambo. This movie is essentially Halloween without Laurie Strode...
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 104 Minutes (Original Cut)
The Nicsperiment Score: 6/10
Two British girls backpacking across Australia meet up with their Australian male friend, who buys a car so the trio can visit the remote Wolf Creek Crater. The trip goes innocently enough, as the three have a peaceful, 20-something good time. Eventually, they reach the crater successfully, and there's even a burgeoning romance between the boy and one of the girls that leads to a kiss. The trip couldn't be going better...until the car won't start. Luckily for the kids, a large Australian man named Mick shows up. He seems to be every Australian male stereotype made flesh, their own personal Crocodile Dundee, there to rescue them. But soon, and quite brutally, the trio find that Mick is not what he seems.
The first hour of Wolf Creek is paradoxically both carefree and suspenseful. It has all the hallmarks of an -utback travelogue. The rural desert of Australia might as well be the surface of the moon, but the well-cast Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, and Kestie Morassi seem to be having a great time exploring it together. At the same time, writer/director, Greg McLean, does an excellent job building a sense of dread. There's a sense that something malignant is watching this trio, that something evil wants to destroy them...and then it does.
John Jarratt is perfectly cast as the sociopathic, unimaginably evil Mick. He is a caricature of the type of man you'd want to get you out of a jam, which makes his incredibly aberrant behavior all the more horrific. However, I have a tough time recommending the final 45 minutes Wolf Creek. It's literally, "powerful, sociopathic man tortures three innocent, helpless people in their 20s." The trio are frustratingly incompetent at facing Mick, but that's essentially the hook of the film--it claims to be based upon true events of backpacker murder in Australia, and this is, realistically, how things would go if three completely unprepared and unarmed individuals had to unexpectedly faceoff with evil outback Rambo. This movie is essentially Halloween without Laurie Strode...
Wolf Creek is a tough watch, but judged simply by its poster and tagline, it doesn't really claim to be anything but. If for some reason that's your cup of team, few films achieve the sense of bleak, nihilistic realism that Wolf Creek does.
Comments