Genre: Adventure/Crime/Horror/Thriller
U.S. Theatrical Release Date: December 25, 2005
U.S. DVD Release Date: April 11, 2006
Tagline: "Based On True Events."
Sometimes 'less' is 'more' and sometimes 'more' is 'far too much'. The viewer has all of this delivered in the film 'Wolf Creek'.
This cautionary tale focuses on a trio of college age kids. Two young British women, Liz (Cassandra Magrath) and Kristy (Kestie Morassi) are on vacation in Australia before they head to the United States to pursue their respective fledgling careers. And Ben (Nathan Phillips), a native to Australia whose life revolves around the local surf scene.
It is never clearly established how the three came to meet, but a genuine sense of camaraderie is established amidst some of Australia's beautiful southeastern locales, as the new found friends sight-see, enjoy the local nightlife and generally have a good time in their shared company.
After a raucous farewell party is thrown for the girls, and with some time left before the pair depart for the U.S., the trio decide that one final adventure together is in order. They purchase an inexpensive station wagon and elect to 'road trip' to go and hike the Wolfe Creek meteorite crater.
Wolfe Creek Crater National Park lies on the eastern edge of the 'Great Sandy Desert' in Australia's Northern Territory, about 2400km from Melbourne. The crater is 880m across and is the result of an impact that occured some 300,000 years ago. The floor of the crater lies approximately 60m below the rim, and it is the second largest crater on Earth that material has been retrieved from.
After a long hike at the crater the group returns to their vehicle to discover that not only have all of their wristwatches stopped, but that the car will not start as well. Any car trouble is bad but it can be especially perilous in the Aussie desert. The only option left open to them is to wait out the night in the hopes that help may eventually pass by.
That help arrives in the form of a tow truck/Humvee mutation piloted by a truculent yet amicable man named Mick (John Jarratt) who assures the kids that he can repair the vehicle. He offers to tow the car to his camp 'just down the road'. Actually, it ends up being quite a ways down the road which makes the group apprehensive, yet still grateful.
Mick's home turns out to be an abandoned mining camp. He offers the threesome some refreshments and begins to tinker with the lifeless vehicle. Exhausted from the day's events the trio makes some small talk and all three fall asleep by the campfire as Mick works on into the night.
The dawn arrives and Liz wakes to find herself bound and gagged in what appears to be a utility shed. Kristy and Ben are not there with her. Obviously their rescuer has drugged them and is now holding them captive for motivations he only knows. Liz manages to free herself and escape the shed.
The cruelty and madness on screen is uncompromising from this point forward as she tries to find her friends and escape from this madman's containment.
The DVD is presented in Widescreen (1.78:1) ratio Enhanced for 16x9 televison and English 5.1 and French 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. It also features English subtitles and Closed Captioning and Spanish subtitles.
Special Features include...
~ 'Commentary with Director Greg McLean, Executive Producer Matt Hearn and Actors Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi'
~ 'The Making of Wolf Creek Documentary'
~ 'Deleted Scene'
~ 'Theatrical Trailer'
The film is a fantastic debut for director Greg McLean who takes the viewer on what amounts to an Australian travelogue, from the beautiful shores of Melbourne, to the alien barreness of the northern desert. The violence is punishing and sickening, yet refreshing for the genre as it breaks the pedestrian cliches of Hollywood's way of telling this type of story. It provides strong, intelligent characters whose language stays relatively clean, their reactions to a terrible situation are reasonable and their clothes don't fall off at the drop of a pin. Combined with a serial killer who is one of the most freshly realized to grace the screen in a long time, the movie revitalizes a genre that has grown stale and tired.
If you are a fan of this type of film you should be completely entertained. If you are not a fan, yet happen to be subjected to the movie, you will never watch another horror film again.
Rating: 4 'Canine-gnawed Corpses' out of 5
TITLE: Wolf Creek (Unrated) ~ STUDIO: Dimension Films in Association with Film Finance Corporation, South Australian Film Corporation, Darclight Films, 403 Productions, The True Crime Channel ~ MPAA RATING: Unrated (U.S. Theatrical Release Rating:R-for Strong Sadistic Violence) ~ RUNNING TIME: 104 Minutes (U.S. Theatrical Running Time:95-99 minutes) ~ STARRING: John Jarratt, Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi ~ DIRECTED BY: Greg McLean
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