★ 9 / 10
Just when you thought it was safe to
OzDrDj
Just when you thought it was safe to go hiking in the bushes again...along comes Mick Taylor. Kristy, Ben and Liz are three pals in their twenties who set out…
Just when you thought it was safe to go hiking in the bushes again...along comes Mick Taylor. Kristy, Ben and Liz are three pals in their twenties who set out to hike through the scenic Wolf Creek National Park in the Australian Outback. The trouble begins when they get back only to find that their car won't start. The trio think they have a way out when they run into a local bushman named Mick Taylor. Wait until you get a load of what Mick has in store for them. Their troubles have just begun.
Read full review
★ 7 / 10
I could tell you - but then I'd
John Chard
I could tell you - but then I'd have to kill you! Three young travellers are making their way across the Australian outback in search of Wolf Creek, a mystical…
I could tell you - but then I'd have to kill you!
Three young travellers are making their way across the Australian outback in search of Wolf Creek, a mystical site where a meteorite struck and created a crater. After achieving their mission they endure car trouble and fearing that they are stuck in the middle of nowhere, they are relieved when help comes in the form of big Mick. At first he's a likable sort of man, but then Mick starts to show signs of strangeness as the evening progresses, and then the travellers fall asleep...
Directed and written by Greg McLean, this Australian film opens with the ominous warning that it is based on real events. Clearly intent on grabbing the viewer by the throat with its raw and real feel, it should be noted however that the film is actually an amalgamation of ideas drawn from real Oz killers like "Bradley John Murdoch" and "John Bunting". Casting aside the film's boast of real life credentials, the question hangs on if it's actually any good?.
McLean has crafted a genuinely unsettling picture, one that upon theatrical release didn't in truth live up to the hyperbole that was so boisterously marketed back in 2005. Now that the furore has long since passed and the tag-lines running about "A new dawn in terror" and that the "Reality is here" have since faded away from memory, what is actually left to sample?.
McLean's film builds up nicely by letting us get to know our three soon to be troubled protagonists. Then it's enter Mick Taylor from outback stage right, and here is a larger than life bogeyman and one of the modern eras better, and yes, scarier creations. Taylor, excellently portrayed by John Jarratt, debunks the myth of the chirpy Aussie bushman, becoming the polar opposite to "Crocodile Dundee" (given a mention in one particular uneasy exchange). Then the terror starts, grim violence and unnerving dialogue seamlessly blends together, all shot in a docu-style on Hi-Def DV.
However, with this narrative trajectory, where the usual formula escape attempts begin to arise, comes the exasperation that so often blights the horror genre. One particular opportunity that lands at Liz Hunter's feet, an opportunity that any sane person in the world would have taken, beggars belief, but then I guess if common sense ruled there would be no post script at the end - which is a post script that blatantly wants us to believe that what we have just watched really happened...
The last quarter is a touch rushed, and that's a shame since we have spent so much time in the company of the three actually likable and believable youths. It rather feels like a quick horror fix than the intended protracted line in terror that Mclean and co were going for. Nevertheless, it does actually work, and crucially it does frighten and hold the utmost attention.
The performances are strong, dodgy British accents aside, with the girls (Cassandra Magrath & Kestie Morassi) in particular convincing as being truly terrified. While the piece is, surprisingly in context of the material, beautiful at times. Red sunsets and the crisp dusky desert come vividly out the screen thanks to Will Gibson's excellent photography. Wolf Creek will not and can't hold up on repeat viewings, but it is still an effective entry in the horror genre, and with Jarratt's Mick Taylor there is a character that's unlikely to be forgotten in a hurry. 7/10
Read full review
★ 6 / 10
I sugggest you all read this :)
Rjdesire
I got this information from another website, and thought I might share it with you :) The true Wolf Creek story happened about two thousand kilometres from…
I got this information from another website, and thought I might share it with you :) The true Wolf Creek story happened about two thousand kilometres from Wolfe Creek National Park, and not in Western Australia, but in the Northern Territory.On July 14, 2001, British tourists Peter Falconio (then 28) and Joanne Lees (then 27) travelled on the Stuart Highway from Alice Springs in the direction of Darwin. It was night time.Roughly half way between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, just outside Barrow Creek, a mechanic called Bradley John Murdoch managed to make them pull over, and told them that sparks were coming out of the exhaust of their van.Peter went to the back of the van with Murdoch to have a look, and Joanne was asked to rev the engine. She later said she thought she heard a shot. Then Murdoch, holding a gun, came to her window. He bound her hands and dragged her into his four wheel drive.Then he disappeared for a while. It is assumed that he dealt with Peter's body during that time. That's when Joanne managed to escape. She hid in the bush as Murdoch was searching for her with his dog. Eventually he gave up.Joanne waited for hours, making sure that he was really gone and not coming back. When she finally staggered back onto the highway two truck drivers stopped and helped her.Murdoch was caught in the largest Northern Territory police investigation ever. He had been in Alice Springs the same day as Joanne and Peter, he had also visited the same fast food outlet.Whether he targeted them at random or followed them from Alice Springs is not known. He claims he wasn't even near Barrow Creek, had taken the Tanami Road instead (a rough bush track from Alice Springs to Western Australia. It runs past Wolfe Creek National Park) Many questions remain. No weapon or body was found. The motive is unclear, too. But speculations revolve around paranoia and aggression induced by his heavy amphetamine use. Murdoch is a self confessed drifter, drug runner, and regularly transported large amounts of cannabis between Alice Springs and Broome in Western Australia.His lawyers couldn't explain how his DNA had ended up in the blood on Joanne's clothes if he'd been nowhere near her. After a two month trial he was found guilty in December 2005. The verdict by the jury was unanimous. Murdoch will serve at least 28 years of a life sentence, unless his appeal is successful.I followed the reports of the trial and admired Joanne Lees' stoicism. I believe it helped her to make an escape, but it often didn't help her before and during the trial. She has remained silent, withdrawn, not revealing her emotions (which are nobody's business in my opinion). No big magazine spreads and TV shows, just four days of testimony during the trial. Unusual in our age of media hype and rampant disclosure...By the way the correct spelling is Wolfe Creek And that's it, the Wolf Creek true story. Or is it? Well, not quite. There sure are many parallels, enough for Murdoch's lawyers to prevent the movie from being released in the Northern Territory during the trial. But the true story above is not the only one that influenced the Wolf Creek movie.The character of Mick Taylor, the seemingly friendly and helpful bush bloke, is modelled on Ivan Milat. Milat was a serial killer who picked up hitchhikers and took them into the woods where he tortured and killed them. These murders took place in the 1990s in New South Wales, not in the Outback (and have taken place in other form at other times in other parts of the world as well...) Milat, too, was caught and sentenced to life in prison.You should also keep in mind that writer/director Greg McLean wrote the original story years ago, as a conventional and purely fictional horror flick set in the Australian Outback. He only became aware of the true cases afterwards, and took ideas and cues from them and blended them into his story. The line "based on true events" surely helps marketing the film, but it is misleading...So what does the Wolf Creek true story mean for tourists to the Australian Outback? Should you be concerned? Absolutely. Stay away from amphetamines...
Read full review
55%
TOMATOMETER
· 119 reviews
49%
AUDIENCE
· 50K ratings
6.2/10
85.8K
•••
surprisingly effective especially if you just stumble across it and think it's just another 90 minutes of horror junk. worth a watch.