Wolf Creek --

[TheRoadWarrior]

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WOLF CREEK

2005
AUSTRALIAN HORROR FILM

written & directed by Greg Mclean.




This came up over a beer with a friend as a good horror flick.

I'd for one have to agree with him on that analysis.

Is this a cult film though?
Too recent?

How do horror fans see this film? I have a soft spot for it, it's got something, but I've read a number of negative and positive reviews - a mixed response. The negatives seem to be saying that it's got nothing new to say, esp around plot/genre type. It falls into a run of similar films.

Maybe??

I tend to see it as all atmosphere, existential, evil as average in form, and it defies the romantic plot line. There's the whole feral tourism thing going on too, the antag sees the backpackers as vermin, to be hunted, toyed with, raped, murdered ...

John Jarratt plays the stand-out bogeyman in this flick, his laugh and casual attitude to slaughter is the compelling aspect, it doesn't seem to him that's he's doing anything wrong. He's a hunter, an example of 'too much time spent alone in the wild' and he's been doing this for a long time, the film provides a write up of how many people disappear in the outback, or willds of Australia, per year. It's a lot.

I think they're suggesting that they can't all be alien abductions!

[Paul Moran]

Watched it 4 years ago (30 Dec 2007) since when I've watched over 4000 movies. I refreshed my memory by reading the IMDB blurb, and I can just about remember it! I still have the off-air DVD-R, though.

To illustrate TheRoadWarrior's point about mixed reviews, it got 4 stars (Very Good) in Radio Times, but zero stars from Roger Ebert - I've never been disappointed when he recommends a film, but we often disagree when he hates one - who said: "There is a line and this movie crosses it. I don't know where the line is, but it's way north of "Wolf Creek." There is a role for violence in film, but what the hell is the purpose of this sadistic celebration of pain and cruelty? The theaters are crowded right now with wonderful, thrilling, funny, warm-hearted, dramatic, artistic, inspiring, entertaining movies. If anyone you know says this is the one they want to see, my advice is: Don't know that person no more." I suspect he is not a horror fan!

[TheRoadWarrior]

GrimWhiz, that's after the girl climbs up onto the peak overlooking the crater, yes? She thinks it's beautiful, but there's a sense of something else out there... she doesn't look convinced by it all. That was my take...

I agree, there seems to be quite a lot of that existential, reductive vibe going, which taps into the way the nutter and 'we' to some extent feel complicit on some level in not caring too much about these kids because of the feral tourism theme.

I also liked how the yokels in that outback bar are aggressive towards the protags, giving some early warning of the hostility that may exist off the beaten track.