Wolf Creek

This movie contains crucial information for tourists trapped by a homicidal maniac.

Featuring

John Jarratt as Mick Taylor

Nathan Phillips as smarmy Sydneysider

Cassandra Magrath as Girl One

Kestie Morassi as Girl Two

and a whole bunch of inconsequential characters

In anticipation of watching Wolf Creek 2 with The Boss, we thought we should visit upon the original movie to see whether the movie content really justified eminent American movie reviewers to walk out before it ended. Well, it didn’t.In fact, Wolf Creek is actually kind of boring and also, in some ways, extremely stupid.

The movie says it’s based on real events, but is actually a mish mash of aspects notorious crimes committed in Australia over the past couple of decades. Being set in the Outback, where the roads are long and straight, the scenery is flat and sparse and the distances between civilisation seemingly astronomical, the movie spends nearly half of its run time watching the three main characters driving around and enjoying their holiday.

Even when the action begins, it’s still pretty slow and boring.Meet a random bunch of backpackers travelling through central Australia, one bloke from Sydney and two Pommie girls. I forget their names, though that’s a detail that is really inconsequential to the entire storyline. The only character that really matters is Mick Taylor, the psychotic tourist killer wandering the Outback, preying on backpackers. His hunting ground is Wolf Creek National Park, with the Wolf Creek crater as its centrepiece.

There are undoubtedly a few flaws in the whole thing.

His entrapment begins when hikers go up into the crater for a few hours, giving him an opportunity to disable their car and appear to be the only source of help in the remote area. Then, under the pretense of aid, Taylor tows the ill destined tourists back to camp, drugs them and then has his sick way with them, depending on their gender. I’d hate to think what happens to any unsuspecting kids.

There are undoubtedly a few flaws in the whole thing. Firstly, the two Pommies have a chance to actually put an end to the whole thing when the brunette shoots Mick in the neck which his rifle. Instead of, oh I don’t know, checking for a pulse after he collapses and making sure he’s dead by stabbing, bashing or some other method, they run away and are surprised when he’s not dead. Face, meet palm.

Even more stupidly, the two girls go back to try to find some method of transport to complete their escape. Except that the brunette – who was evidently the resourceful, smart one – spends an inordinate amount of time sneaking around Taylor’s garage and watching videos, wasting their advantage and not noticing that Taylor was already in the car with her. One thing though, how he got back to his camp, in the garage, then guessed correctly which car she would get into silently is beyond me. He’s hardly a subtle person.

Wolf Creek is a slightly boring, mainly forgettable movie that plays along the murderpacker factor, and despite being classified as “horror”, it’s actually far from it. In fact, the only scary thing about the movie is the cringeworthiness of drongo Aussie accents in the Outbank. Aside from that, it’s a pretty run of the mill slasher movie that doesn’t excite. Or frighten. Or inspire one to take a holiday in the Australian wilderness.

Rating

One of the better horror/slasher movies out there. The characters’ experiences are pretty harrowing, but still has bad plotholes…

Should I watch it?

Even if you’re into this sort of stuff, yes. It’s not very gory and even the squeamish can tolerate it.