Wolf Creek (film)

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Wolf Creek

Official Poster for Wolf Creek
Directed by Greg McLean
Produced by David Lightfoot
Matt Hearn
George Adams
Martin Fabinyi
Michael Gudinski
Gary Hamilton
Written by Greg McLean
Starring John Jarratt
Cassandra Magrath
Kestie Morassi
Nathan Phillips
Music by Frank Tetaz
Cinematography Will Gibson
Editing by Jason Ballantine
Distributed by Darclight Films
Dimension Films
Release date(s) December 25, 2005
Running time 99 min.
Country Australia Flag of Australia
Language English
Budget AU$1,380,000
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Wolf Creek is a 2005 Australian horror film written, co-produced and directed by Greg McLean. It has strong themes of torture, rape and murder. The film is not based on real events as stated at the beginning of the film, it is merely inspired by them. The film stars Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, John Jarratt, and Nathan Phillips. It was released in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland on September 16, 2005, on November 3, 2005 in Australia (apart from the Northern Territory), and on December 25, 2005 in the United States.

Tagline:

  • 30,000 are reported missing in Australia every year. 90% are found within a month. Some are never seen again.
  • How can anyone find you if no one knows you're missing?
  • The thrill is in the hunt.

Contents

[edit] Plot Synopsis

Two British tourists, Liz Hunter (Magrath) and Kristy Earl (Morassi), meet with an Australian man, Ben Mitchell (Phillips), at a party, and they decide to spend the rest of their holiday with him. The young trio plans to drive to Wolf Creek, a large crater formed by a 50,000 tonne meteorite, and explore the area.

Liz (Magrath), Kristy (Morassi) and Ben (Phillips) first meet Mick (Jarratt).
Liz (Magrath), Kristy (Morassi) and Ben (Phillips) first meet Mick (Jarratt).

Upon returning to their car after hiking down to the crater, the group discovers that the car won't start and, unable to discover the problem, prepare themselves to sit out the night. The instance when the characters discover their watches have stopped and that they have inadvertently dozed off while at the crater draws a parallel to a similar scene in the 1975 film Picnic at Hanging Rock, which also featured John Jarratt in a small but important role. After dark, a "Crocodile Dundee"-like character named Mick Taylor (Jarratt) comes upon them and offers to show them to his camp to repair the car. With no choice but to agree, the group allows Taylor to take them to his camp, a spot which is apparently an abandoned mining site. In the dark, it is not apparent how far they travel, or in which direction. Taylor regales them with tall stories of his past while making a show of fixing the car, claiming the problem to be the ignition coil. His manner unsettles Liz and Kristy, although Ben is less impressed and dismisses the bushman's tales as bravado. The tourists are offered water, which is laced with drugs that render them unconscious.

Liz awakens to find herself tied up in a shed late the next afternoon. She manages to escape by cutting the cable ties that bind her hands together, and as night falls she discovers Mick torturing Kristy by shooting at her, tormenting her and sexually abusing her. She causes a distraction, and then attempts to shoot Mick with one of his own guns but fails to kill him, although this is not apparent immediately. The women flee the camp. Hopelessly lost in the dark, they almost plunge over a cliff into a ravine. Realizing the killer is now behind them, the pair attempt to outwit him by pushing their vehicle off the cliff. After narrowly avoiding Taylor, who is now out searching for them, the women return to the camp to steal another car. Liz leaves the hysterical Kristy outside the gates, telling her to escape on foot if she does not return in five minutes.

Liz (Magrath) creates a diversion.
Liz (Magrath) creates a diversion.

Liz enters a garage and discovers Taylor's large stock of cars as well as an organized array of travellers’ possessions, including video cameras. She watches the playback on one of them and is horrified to see Taylor "rescuing" other travellers stranded at Wolf Creek in almost identical circumstances to her own. This suggests Taylor is a serial predator who has snared many others with a similar ruse. She then picks up another camera which turns out to be Ben's. She watches the footage and she sees Mick's truck at the gas station they were at earlier. He had been following them. She gets into a car and attempts to start it but Taylor announces himself with a sinister chuckle and stabs her through the driver's seat with a huge knife. He then cuts off some of her fingers, severs her spinal cord (making what Mick calls "a head on a stick") and tortures her to reveal the location of Kristy. Mick mentions that this method of torture was used in the Vietnam war.

John Jarratt as "Mick Taylor"
John Jarratt as "Mick Taylor"

By dawn, Kristy has reached a tarred highway and is found by a passing motorist. He is subsequently shot dead from a considerable distance by Taylor, who earlier revealed he once shot water buffalo from a helicopter. Kristy attempts to escape in the motorist's car, but the chase is short. Kristy forces Taylor's car from the road but Taylor proceeds to shoot out one of her tires and cause her car to crash. Taylor then drives up and kills her as she drags herself from the wreckage. He stows her in the boot of his vehicle along with the lifeless body of the hapless good samaritan and sets fire to the other car.

The action now cuts to Ben, whose fate until now was not revealed. He awakens to find himself nailed to a crossbeam in a mine shaft. Close by is a cage containing two savage dogs and two similarly crucified and partially-eaten corpses. He manages to extract himself and enters the camp in early daylight. From this it could be assumed that the scene is taking place at approximately the same time as Taylor is away from the camp chasing Kristy, but the time line of the film is never clear. Ben escapes into the desert, eventually passing out beside a dirt road where he is rescued by two Swedish travellers and taken to safety. The final scene of the film reports, in documentary style, that the women's disappearance remains unsolved; Ben was kept in police custody for four months but was later cleared of all suspicion.

The film closes with an image of Taylor walking into the sunset.

[edit] Cast and characters

[edit] Basis in Reality

Wolf Creek was marketed as being "based on true events", in the same way as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Both films are actually fictional but draw inspiration from reality.

While not based on any single event, Mick Taylor's behaviour in Wolf Creek is reminiscent of some infamous Australian murderers. The murder methods portrayed are similar to those employed by Backpacker Murderer Ivan Milat during the early 1990s. Milat abducted backpackers, subjected them to torture and buried their bodies in the Belanglo State Forest, southwest of Sydney, New South Wales. Some of his victims were tied up and shot from various angles (the first torture scene in Wolf Creek is similar to this) and one was almost decapitated with a hunting knife. In addition, the abduction of British tourist Peter Falconio and the assault of his girlfriend Joanne Lees in July, 2001 by Bradley John Murdoch in the Northern Territory are also cited as influences. Murdoch's trial was still under way at the time of the film's initial release in Australia, and for this reason the Northern Territory court placed an injunction on the film's release there in the belief that it could influence the outcome of the proceedings.

Wolf Creek is set in a real location; however, the actual meteorite crater location is called "Wolfe Creek", and is located in northern Western Australia. It is the second largest meteorite crater in the world from which meteorite fragments have been recovered. The movie was almost entirely filmed in South Australia; however the aerial shots of the crater in the movie show the genuine Wolfe Creek crater.

[edit] Reception

Ratings
Australia:  R 18+
Canada (Alberta):  18A
Canada (BC/SK):  18A
Canada (Ontario):  18A
Canada (Manitoba):  18A
Canada (Maritime):  18A
Canada (Quebec):  18+
Canada (Home Video)):  18A
Finland:  K-18
Germany:  18
Mexico:  C
New Zealand:  R18
Philippines:  R-18
Singapore:  M18
United Kingdom:  18
United States:  R (re-rated)
NC-17 (original rating)
A promotional poster for the film.
A promotional poster for the film.

Wolf Creek opened on 151 screens around Australia and took AU$1.225 million in its first weekend, making it the number one film for the weekend. The film grossed over £1,500,000 in the UK, an impressive return for a low-budget horror film. It has taken in $13,000,000 in the US so far.

Despite the film's commercial success, it has received a mixed reception from critics. Some critics were deeply offended by the film's brutality, while others praised it for its unorthodoxy and daringness. Critic Roger Ebert gave it a rare zero stars rating, saying, "It is a film with one clear purpose: To establish the commercial credentials of its director by showing his skill at depicting the brutal tracking, torture and mutilation of screaming young women ... I wanted to walk out of the theatre and keep on walking".[1] Seattle Times movie critic Moira Macdonald said that Wolf Creek was the first movie she ever walked out on. She called watching the movie "punishment" and wondered how someone's real death inspired this "entertainment". Nevertheless, it received some fantastic reviews in the British press, with The Independent praising its departure from the generic rules of the horror film genre.[2] Notoriously hard to impress Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw awarded it 4/5 stars.[3] Time Out said "by making us feel the pain, Greg McLean's ferocious, taboo-breaking film tells us so much more about how and why we watch horror movies".[4] They admitted, however, that the movie was not for everyone. Also film magazines such as Empire and Total Film gave the film 4/5. Fangoria called it the scariest film of the year.

James Berardinelli from Reelviews gave the film 3 stars out of 4, saying that he was "a little mystified by the strong negative reaction the film has received in some quarters." He goes on to mention "To slam Wolf Creek as a 'sadistic celebration of pain and cruelty' (as Roger Ebert did) is to misunderstand the genre...If the film evokes squeamishness, it has done its job. You're not supposed to sit through a film like this placidly munching popcorn. The reaction is intended to be visceral."

Acclaimed film director/writer Yannick Desire Jean called it the scariest film he had ever seen.[5]

[edit] Box Office

In Australia Wolf Creek debuted at number 1 on November 6 making $900,000 AUD[6]. After spending 8 weeks in Australian cinemas its total gross was $4,262,300. In the US Wolf Creek debuted on December 25 ranking at number 12 making $2,805,754.[7] After 11 weeks it exited the US cinemas making $16,186,384. Worldwide the film grossed $27,651,606.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wolf Creek
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Wolf Creek
  4. ^ Wolf Creek
  5. ^ Interview: John Jarratt
  6. ^ Australia Box Office, November 3–6, 2005
  7. ^ Wolf Creek (2005) - Weekend Box Office Results
  8. ^ Wolf Creek (2005)

[edit] External links