Wolf Creek - Horror Film Review

The square jawed girl I lament you...Wolf Creek is another of those films that purports to be based on true events (like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and others) It is kinda grim, and gives you likable characters who don't encounter danger until around 40 minutes into the film, so their personalities are able to come through.


Three young tourists are driving across Western Australia on the way to a big party. They include 2 British female backpackers, and an Australian. Their journey is a long one, and is through the desolate outback. On the way they stop off at Wolf Creek National Reserve. It is an isolated nature park set in a gigantic crater from a meteorite that crashed there in Australia's past. They spend a lovely day there before heading back to their car...which won't start. With the onset of night they have no choice but to spend the night in the car. A lorry turns up, and a friendly Crocodile Dundee style man turns up and offers to tow the car to his place where he has the tools to fix it up. He turns out to be a psycho mad man as is the way.

The film is more realistic than many of it's ilk, the violence seems more real. I really wanted the characters to survive, I found myself checking the films length towards the end to try and work out in my mind what chance they have. The film plays with you by constantly changing the character the film is focused on, so tricking you into thinking they are the hero. The attractive square jawed girl I had assumed was the heroine of the film. She was strong willed, sensible, but when it gets down to it she was nothing but a 'head on a stick' (slang explained in the film). The film was shocking I would say, mostly because the victims are so likable which makes their suffering all the more unpleasant. The psycho is quite creepy, and insane, but acts with a plan, this is something he has done many many times before. There is one scene about halfway though the film where by if one little thing had happened differently the path would have been so different, but it's human to make mistakes, so the victims can be forgiven.


Allegedly based on true events, it actually kinda is. Mostly it is based on a real life Australian serial killer, who tortured his victims in a way similar to the mad man of this film, and in a area of tastelessness a mine in this film is actually an anagram of the real life killers name. A grim film, but well made, and unsettling.


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