Alternate Covers
(register to change the above image)
|
|
|
Shop at Amazon
|
Wolf Creek
List Price: $14.95
Amazon's Price: $13.49
Used Price: $0.01
Usually ships in 24 hours
|
Wolf Creek
Used Price: $22.52
This item is not available from Amazon, but you can purchase it used from third-party sellers.
|
Wolf Creek (Unrated) [HD DVD]
List Price: $12.95
Amazon's Price: $9.49
Used Price: $5.29
Usually ships in 24 hours
|
Wolf Creek (Unrated...
List Price: $14.95
Amazon's Price: $10.99
Used Price: $0.01
Usually ships in 24 hours
|
Wrong Turn
List Price: $14.98
Amazon's Price: $9.99
Used Price: $1.93
Usually ships in 24 hours
|
|
A film like "Wolf Creek" caters to the lowest common denominator of movie goer - the ones who want as much blood and screaming and torture as allowed by the laws of their particular state. These are the movie goers who live for viciousness. Nothing is too much for them. And, in that sense, "Wolf Creek" delivers exactly what it promises - a realistic and uncompromising depiction of the torture and killing of two young British girls at the hands of a maniacal outback psychopath. What separates this film from a host of others is the visual style. It also helps that the four actors are all equally suited for their roles and turn their characters into people more realistic that we might want. I felt as if I was watching "The Blair Witch Project" in the outback, and that is really how the film comes off occasionally. We forget, at times, that we are watching actors and start to actually experience the suffering these people are experiencing. Now, sure, "Wolf Creek" is not totally believable. There are the 'must-have' horror movie scenes, as when the frantic young girl is trying to start the car and she looks in the rearview mirror to see the killer sitting there. And, there is the ever present car chase scene, where the killer's car is always twice as fast as the victim's. "Wolf Creek", despite what you were probably expecting me to say, was a load of horrific fun.
Based on actual events that occurred in Australia in 1999, "Wolf Creek" chronicles the road trip of three young people. Liz (Cassandra Magrath) and Kristy (Kestie Morassi) are two attractive British gals living it up in Australia when they meet up with the handsome Ben (Nathan Phillips). The three of them embark on a road trip that will take them out to the Wolf Creek Crater, and eventually to Sydney, where Ben is lives. At first, everything seems to be going according to plan. They are having fun, making good time, and becoming slowly invested in one another. By the time they reach the crater, however, their good fortune has run out. They return to their car to find that it will not start and that their watches have stopped - odd, considering Ben had just told a story about how Australia is famous for alien abductions and sightings. Alas, just as they have given up hope of being rescued for the night, in drives Mick Taylor (John Jarratt), a classic outbacksman who serves up the usual "Crocodile Dundee" rhetoric and offers to drive them back to his place to repair their car. They agree, and the fun begins. For, you see, jolly old Mick Taylor is not the good natured rambler that everyone sees around the campfire. He has more pressing matters on his mind.
The camerawork in this film is simple, and perfect. Brandon Trost has created this perfect stream of images and shots that slowly build the tension to a boil. Notice his use of sky shots and exteriors. He turns the Australian outback into something desolate...something lonely. By the time events have been set into motion, we know there is no escaping because, as we have seen for ourselves, they really are in the middle of nowhere. So, it does not become far fetched that everyone keeps dying and no one comes to their aid - there's no one to come to their aid. Director Greg McLean obviously knows how to stage and execute a good old fashioned horror road movie, in the tradition of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Hills Have Eyes". And, that's exactly what this film wants to be - both of those films. The villain, Mick Taylor, is very much like a hybrid of all the great villains from the horror road movies. He is slow, methodical, menacing when he needs to be, and can turn on a dime - he is someone we would expect to get along with, if only he wasn't into that whole torturing and killing thing. If "Wolf Creek" is an example of where Australian horror is headed, then I am on board. I strongly prefer a film like this over fecal waste like "Saw".
Also, I have to mention how thrilled I was at a major studio actually releasing a film like this during Christmas weekend. Movie goers need selection and not everyone wants to see Jim Carrey rob a Starbucks or Jennifer Aniston cry her mascara off. Last year, the horror film "Darkness" was released by Dimension Films and it received far better returns than anyone expected. They followed the same formula this year with "Wolf Creek" and it seems to have paid off again. Could it be that Christmas horror films have a larger audience that we ever thought? On the whole, "Wolf Creek" was a highly affective and highly entertaining horror film. John Jarratt gives us a villain to remember for a long while, and a couple of scenes that are still sticking in my head. As I mentioned earlier, films like "Wolf Creek" appeal to the lowest common denominator of movie goer. I never said that was a bad thing. I am one of those common denominator, and proud of it.
7.5/10.
|
This review hasn't been rated yet.
|
|
|
![Wolf Creek (Unrated) [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JWR8QY8HL._SL75_.jpg "Wolf Creek (Unrated) [HD DVD]")
