UHM - Review - Wolf Creek

This film came out some months back in the UK and is actually getting the DVD treatment in January, while we in the states are barely getting it in the theaters. This is a film that plays on the typical theme of city friends in the wrong place with the wrong people, and instead of going through the same-old with crazed inbred locals wanting to slice-and-dice'em and possibly even eat'em, we get more of a twisted and possibly true scenario involving a few people just tryin' to stay alive against a seemingly normal-looking individual -- this is where the film becomes unique. Hell, we don't even get into the "action" until almost an hour into -- mostly relying on character development, setting the scene, and added suspense. According to writer/director Greg McLean the film is based on actual cases, one of which went to trial recently, so naturally these "true events" influenced the script. Simply put, with Wolf Creek we get a more realistic look at survival horror.

So basically the story follows three back-packers on their way to a place in the Australian outback called "Wolf Creek" that houses a large crater. After experiencing some bad weather, they cut their sight-seeing short, but naturally their car wont start, leading them to spend the night in the area. Of course a seemingly friendly local comes to their aid late at night and offers to take their car to his place to get fixed up. Obviously these people haven't learned anything from films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, because a car breaking down in the middle-of-nowhere and an overly anxious local wanting to help out will only lead to either getting eaten or just plain getting tortured and killed, and possibly have your bones as trophies. At first I didn't really know what to think about the movie -- I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not. I was expecting more action and fending off against a number of locals, but instead, we're only witness to a solo Australian with rifle skills. This is where I decided that I liked it; because it doesn't fall into the mold of past films, but instead shows us a more true approach at what would happen in the situation. Now considering we really only have three main characters and a villain, you can't expect a high body count or even gore. Although we do get a fair amount of blood; the rest of the film is built with suspense -- something a lot of horror films are missing now-a-days.

OVERALL

If you're looking for a movie with a lot of blood and guts then look somewhere else, because this movie is built with suspsense and doesn't actually kick into gear until more than half-way. However, if you're looking for a realistic approach at the typical survival sub-genre, then I suggest you check this.

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Michael :

Posted 3 days ago

Sometimes people are supposed to act dumb in horror films. But this was too much. Wasn't even sacry.

Ash :

Posted 157 days ago

I HATE this movie! I know that one factor to my disliking of this film is because I don't like horror films set in other countries, or horror films from other countries matter of fact.. ... use I just can't relate to them. I've never been to the Aussie outback and so there's nothing here to attract my eye or interest..rather than the total isolation, which was a nice touch, although it was massively over-used. This film wasn't good...and I really don't understand why you think it is!

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