Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Nov 15, 2005 13:55:27 GMT -5
Plot:A chilling, factually-based, story of three road-trippers in remote Australia who are plunged into danger when they accept help from a friendly local.
Cast:
John Jarratt
Cassandra Magrath
Kestie Morassi
Guy Petersen
Nathan Phillips
Jenny Starwall
My Thoughts:Not a great movie up until the second half.
Review:"Wolf Creek" is a film thats based on a real life incident which took place in the Australian outback where three young backpackers were murdered by a local.In fact as we speak the guy is actually standing trial for his crimes in Australia and the film hasn't been released yet in that continent because it would've conflicted with said trial.The film itself however is a pretty weak one up until the second half where things finally take off.The film begins with three backpackers,Ben (Nathan Phillips),Liz (Cassandra Magrath),and Kristy (Kestie Morassi) who are on a road trip.Everythings going smoothly until they have a small run in with a few guys at a diner,which doesn't result in anything but some small back and forth dialogue.After making a sight seeing stop off at the Wolf Creek crater during their road trip,they run into some car trouble,which they can't decide whether or not it's the car or if the crater itself has somehow interfered with the vehicles mechanism.At any rate,they decide to crash in their car until morning when they can hopefully flag someone down but a guy named Mick (John Jarrat) shows up and gives them the rundown on whats wrong with the car,thus becoming the answer to their prayers,or so it seems."Wolf Creek" is a startling,cruel,and effective example of what can happen to people when fate allows them to run across societies psychotic types.It's also a character study in how these types of people can hide their malevolent nature only later to spring it upon their unsuspecting victims.In that regard "Wolf Creek" doesn't offer up anything new when it comes to horror movies of this nature,but the average young people characters,the outback setting,and the directing give the film a strong sense of realism which makes you feel like you are actually watching something from real life happen before your eyes as opposed to knowing every step of the way it's just a movie.When Mick does finally unleash his hellish nature upon the young trio,the character seems over the top but soon as events unfold Jarrats character of Mick evens out very nicely and his sadistic nature comes off as scary rather than annoying or overacted.Jarrats performance along with the performances of Magrath and Morassi really carry the second half of the film along nicely at an intense pace.Making up for a very abismal first half.Now I know it's necessary to set up the story and all that but the dialogue and character traits given to the three young actors in the first half doesn't serve to hold the viewers interest at all and thus in order to get to that awesome second half,we have to watch these 3 uninteresting people talk with each other for most of the films first half.My motto is,if you're going to spend a long period of time getting the audience accquainted with the characters,make sure they're interesting and are the type of people you'd want to watch and could tolerate watching onscreen for 30 minutes."Wolf Creek" doesn't make itself into a blood splatterfest but it's bloody by normal horror movie standards.Theres also alot of gruesome scenes,one of which takes place when Magraths character Liz returns to Micks shack to get a vehicle only to run into Mick, and another where Mick is in vehicular pursuit of Kristy while hes taunting her with a severed head."Wolf Creek" only had half of the equation right but it's still a good watch despite spending too much of the first half of the film on the paperthin young adults.The second half with it's sheer brutality,cruelty,fast paced action,and small but important reveals more than makes up for the lackluster first half.Was it worth all the hype? No not really,atleast I didn't think so.But it's the most realistic horror movie to come out this year in my opinion,and that says alot.
Pros:The outback setting which gives the nighttime scenes in the film that extra bit of suspense.Very sinister villain.Very well put together third act.
Cons:Boring first half,uninteresting characters in Liz,Ben,and Kristy.I wish we could've found out some more about Mick Taylor but leaving any method to his madness unrevealed worked a certain level.
Overall:Worth catching in theaters come December 25th.