You may have noticed that despite my username I have been looking at films lately that are not Netflix oriented. There are a number of reasons for that but mostly it has been because I feel as though Netflix has some sort of globalist agenda that they are constantly trying to ram down our throats. I still have netflix, but have actually been enjoying films that are other platforms and I'll go ahead and be honest that I am torrenting most of these films - sorry.
Anyway, on to Wolf Creek:
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First off, this film being "based on true events" is a very loose use of that phrase since none of this story is actually true nor are any of the characters real people. It is based on "true events" only in the sense that at some time in the past some backpackers had been kidnapped in the outback of Australia. While I only discovered that the "true events" are not in fact true, it became a bit evident while the movie was going on that this was the case, because certain details could not possibly be known.
Now, about the film and I want to be very clear about this: This movie is not going to be for everyone because it is a grindhouse gore-fest of a film. It also takes absolute ages for anything in the movie to actually start happening. Once the thriller / horror aspects of it finally do take off (about 2/3 of the way through the movie) they are done in a masterful way... well, that is if you are into that sort of thing.
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I watch a lot of films. There are very few types of films that I would consider disturbing. Excessive gore and depictions of extreme violence are not things that turn me off from watching something and trust me when I say that this film, once it gets going, has a ton of this and may be very off-putting to a lot of folks out there. It was extreme enough for Roger Ebert to criticize it negatively because of these aspects.
The film is certainly for a certain type of person that doesn't mind extremes and of course depictions of realistic gore, torture, and sadism. For people who can stomach that, at least from a directorial point of view this aspect of the film is very well done.
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Unfortunately, the other 2/3 of the film is filled with a whole lotta nothing as it is just a story about 3 people who decide to go on a backpacking trip to an actual place called "Wolf Creek" and I suppose that was necessary because 90 minutes of fast-paced horror would have been a bit difficult for them to pull off on their $1.1 million budget. Instead we have them wandering around the Outback, remarking on the beauty and discussing whether or not it would be a good idea to bring water or umbrellas with them.
Once the action starts and our (obvious) villain, Mick Taylor is introduced, the movie takes on a completely different pace almost immediately.
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Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) is a phenomenal character as far as conceivable bad guys are concerned since he has no super-powers and is what I would imagine a real-life serial-killer would actually be like. He is seemingly normal, friendly, and helpful to strangers but in the meantime he has bad intentions for the people he encounters right from the start. He is a bushman and it is very clear that they are basing his personality at least a bit on Mick Dundee even going as far as to quote the famous like from Crocodile Dundee when he says "that's not a knife.... this is a knife!"
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That is one of the good parts of the film. However, there are certain "typical" aspects of the movie that I did not enjoy that are extremely typical of horror films and while there is a good chance they were put in there intentionally, all the backpacker victim characters make the usual stupid mistakes of not double-tapping (making sure your incapacitated enemy is actually dead), tripping over stuff, loading into a car without seeing if you even have the keys yet, and not arming yourself despite the fact that in one of the environments they find themselves in literally has an entire wall covered with various implements of death.
Should I watch it?
Honestly, I think for most people that this movie could be a hard pass. It's entire existence is based on a lie in that it is not a true story as advertised but this certainly isn't a new tactic in film-making. The gore elements of it will be enough to keep a lot of people away and the story really isn't anything particularly unique. It is in many ways Texas Chainsaw Massacre in a different setting but without the interesting background of the killers involved.
That being said, I enjoyed some of the art direction and can appreciate the performances of all the actors on such as small budget. For grindhouse fans (which I am kind of one of ya) this might be a "decent" film but certainly nothing spectacular.
