Wolf Creek

Movie Information

Score:

Genre: Sadistic Horror
Director: Greg McLean
Starring: John Jarrat, Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi
Rated: R

Far more terrifying than anything in the ludicrously overrated Wolf Creek are the words “based on a true story” — and that’s exactly how this nasty, amateurish crapfest from Down Under starts. It’s downhill from there.

At least once a year, some bottom-of-the-entrail-pail horror flick comes along that gets tagged as new, daring, groundbreaking and the salvation of the genre. This year we were treated to no less than two such movies — High Tension, and this. Both look exactly like the same old stuff to me. Sure, High Tension is slick and this one’s cruder than crude, but they’re brothers under the skin — supposedly breakthrough works that do nothing but pick the last bits of flesh off the carcasses of movies from years gone by.

First time writer-director Greg McLean has basically made an Australian knock-off of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre combined with a slightly calmed-down version of The Blair Witch Project. (Think of it as The Blair Wallaby Project.) But unlike The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the Tobe Hooper film, not the trashy remake), Wolf Creek has no larger point to make. You’ll search in vain for even a scrap of a hint of a vestige of a soupcon of a trace of social commentary here.

What you have instead consists of three unlikable, meat-on-the-hoof characters who go to look at a hole in the ground (made by a meteorite) in the middle of nowhere. When they return to their car, they find it won’t start and that their watches have stopped at 6:30 (a theoretically creepy touch that has nothing to do with anything and goes nowhere). Out of the dark comes helpful Mick Taylor (John Jarrat, Dead Heart), whose good Samaritan stance and “colorful” colloquialisms (think: the Crocodile Hunter gone really bad) are (big surprise) a sham. What he really wants, of course, is to torture the trio to death in various sadistic and repellent ways — all of which require his victims to behave as if they’re even more stupid than the film has already portrayed them (that’s saying something).

The first two-thirds of the movie moves at the pace of a rheumatic, three-legged tortoise as it establishes the characters and gets them to their date with slaughter. Within five minutes, you’re good and ready to see these people offed. They get drunk, they get stoned, they say stupid things, they’re obnoxious and crude. Their impending demise seems less like potential mayhem than thinning of the herd.

Apart from the film’s heavy dose of misogyny and tendency to lovingly linger over every drop of blood in its last 30 minutes, there’s nothing to separate Wolf Creek‘s last act from those of a few hundred other cheapies. It’s boring, then it’s nasty, then it’s over. That last one is its only saving grace.

Supposedly released unrated, the film clearly has an R rating on its end, making for another bit of shameless huckstering to sit alongside its “true story” rubbish.

— reviewed by Ken Hanke

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About Ken Hanke
Head film critic for Mountain Xpress from December 2000 until his death in June 2016. Author of books "Ken Russell's Films," "Charlie Chan at the Movies," "A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series," "Tim Burton: An Unauthorized Biography of the Filmmaker."

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4 thoughts on “Wolf Creek

  1. Chris

    I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated hated hated hated HATED this movie. This was nothing but a means of torture, for the viewers as well as for the on-screen victims. I seriously regret that I sat through the entire length of this “film” – note the quotation marks – hoping to find some sort of clear and fair resolution to this tale. I’m one for seeing evil punished and the innocent delivered from said evil; unfortunately, that did not happen here. All in all, it was pointless slaughter. And to see the villain get away with murder…I can’t remember what I had to eat that day, but it had to have been something intoxicating for me to have actually wanted to see this.

  2. Ken Hanke

    I’m sure you realize that you came to the wrong person for an argument, since I liked it not better than you!

  3. Chris O'Loughlin

    Ken, it’s certainly not everday I agree with your reviews (Australia is garbage on a grand scale no matter how you look at it) but it is good to see that we can agree on this other piece of dreck from downunder. The reason I didn’t like it was not because it was mean spirited or brutal – it’s a horror movie after all – but because it is so badly badly scripted and badly acted. John Jarrett’s character was hailed as the next Hannibal Lector – dear god! He hasn’t amounted to much since and neither have the other actors – which is surprising seeing how so many bad actors have gone on to such succesful careers. Greg McLean’s follow-up Rogue was better but still pretty forgettable. It has baffled me that Wolf Creek did so well and has rated so well. A bad horror movie – yes. Bad filmaking – definately. I think the fact that Quentin Tarantino found this film to be one of the scarriest he has seen says a lot about today’s cinema. PS: I have a copy of your Ken Russell book which I enjoy very much, and return to often.

  4. Ken Hanke

    Ken, it’s certainly not everday I agree with your reviews (Australia is garbage on a grand scale no matter how you look at it)

    Fair enough since I don’t agree with that assessment of Australia at all.

    The reason I didn’t like it was not because it was mean spirited or brutal – it’s a horror movie after all – but because it is so badly badly scripted and badly acted.

    Well, I still make a distinction between horror movies and mere sadistic torture porn, but I’d hardly argue about this being bad on so many levels.

    Greg McLean’s follow-up Rogue was better but still pretty forgettable.

    Well, it was certainly funnier if we’re talking about the giant crocodile movie.

    I think the fact that Quentin Tarantino found this film to be one of the scarriest he has seen says a lot about today’s cinema.

    I think it says a good bit about Tarantino, too.

    I have a copy of your Ken Russell book which I enjoy very much, and return to often.

    Good heavens! You must have one of the unsigned copies. I’d hold on to that, since I suspect those are the rare ones. I would love to rewrite that book. For that matter, I’d love to carry through with plans for a full-scale Ken Russell biography, but there always seems to be so little time these days.

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