Wolf Creek (2005)

The five most mendacious words in the history of cinema must surely be 'Based on a True Story'. The Coen Brothers famously made up a complete story and then carried the tag-line as an 'insiders joke' on their movie Fargo, but Wolf Creek isn't far off that complete fiction when claiming its story of Australian backpackers being captured and tortured to death is based on real life events. So, Yes, there WAS an Australian case a few years ago where an Australian was found to have picked up hitchhikers and shot them and/or tortured them; No, this is NOT a movie about that and, frankly, it's a hell of a cheat to pretend it is.

The film is very much one of two halves, and horror fans are likely to get bored when they discover that the first half of this film is a languorous, documentary-like feature that sets up the backstory of the three backpackers that are going to find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere with a twisted murderer in the second half of the movie. This first half is all hand-held camera-work, with occasional steadycam, which gives the film a 'naturalistic' feel, but can also make you prone to nausea at times. At times the film's very low budget is all too obvious.

The first act introduces our three main characters, Ben Mitchell (played by Nathan Phillips, who went on to star in Snakes on a Plane) is a 'young, dumb and full of cum' Ozzie, all thumb rings and trendy tattoos that epitomises the 'cool' surfer dude crowd this film is presumably aimed at, albeit one with a 'good heart'. He is joined by Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassie (two Australians, playing English girls - go figure!), best friends who've hooked up with Ben for their holidays, and one of whom has a bit of a crush on him. The trio buy a very cheap run-down car and head out to a rather remote tourist attraction - the Wolf Creek of the title - returning from a four hour hike to find night settling in and a car that won't start. Resigned to waiting in the car until daylight, the group are grateful when a rather odd local, with whom they've had a run-in earlier on their travels, shows up in a tow truck and offers to help them out. Suspicions arising from the long journey to his 'workshop' vanish as alcohol is passed around at a camp fire, although the backpackers alternate between being afraid and amused as their new host swings between being jovial and friendly one minute, and then inappropriate and rather frightening the next. They are keen to be on their way but alcohol and lack of sleep take their toll, and they become resigned to spending the night at the remote workshop. One-by-one they fall asleep around the campfire, and awake next morning to find themselves in rather different environments to the one they fell asleep in. Let the horror commence!

Chicago film critic Roger Ebert (of Ebert and Roeper fame), whose opinions are always worth reading, gave Wolf Creek, his first 'zero' rating in many years of film journalism and writes a very eloquent piece on why this film sickened him. He believes the film to be misogynistic, which I find odd given that the strongest characters by far are the female leads. Admittedly they have by far the most screen time, and hence the worst torture scenes, while the male character seems to be there in an attempt to decieve us as to who is likely to survive and who isn't. At times the things the women do grate infuriatingly - would someone who's clearly quite intelligent that's been tortured horrifically but who's managed to escape really return to the scene of the crime, continually shouting, screaming and waving a 'Here I am' torch around? I don't think so! But the film does have you gripped for its half hour 'finale' gore-fest, and it's some measure of how effective the long set-up has been that the gory scenes which actually don't run for very long, seem to dominate the whole film. If you like being shocked and scared and having to turn your head away from the screen at times, then there's a lot in Wolf Creek that you'll enjoy, and personally I think Ebert's criticism that the film goes too far, and is too sadistic and bloody, together with his 'zero' rating, while simultaneously admitting that it shows great film-making skills, was unfair.

What Ebert really misses in his extremely negative review is the astonishing performance from John Jarratt, as the screwed-up protagonist 'Mick'. This is a new villain to give the likes of Hannibal Lecter a real run for their money, with his peculiar laugh, and sudden switches from genial affability to pure evil hatred being quite terrifying. This is a performance far more subtle and well-rounded than one is used to in this genre, and an extremely powerful one for all that.

The film was shot on high-definition cameras, which might lead you to believe this is going to be a 'show case' release. Alas, the end result comes across more like a home movie than a state-of-the-art motion picture, and the pitifully low budget is very evident on screen. The picture blooms, and is full of noise and grain in dark scenes. This is not the sort of release that's going to win over huge converts from standard definition DVD, although given its low budget limitations it's adequate enough.

Unfortunately this is another disk from the Weinstein studio. The internet is awash with reported glitches and problems with their disks, and this appears to be no exception. This is the first disk from the company I've had sustainable, easily repeatable problems with on my XBox 360 HD-DVD player. Fortunately the main film plays fine, and it's only the extra's that are all screwed up.

The hour long Making of... documentary is completely unplayable, giving a black screen on selection, before crashing the XBox 360 with an 'invalid disk status' code. Owners of Toshiba players have reported other (different) problems. Luckily, the other extra features are viewable, but they are artificially stretched vertically (the opposite way to that one usually sees in poorly set up stores that take a standard picture and stretch it to fit widescreen), which makes them uncomfortable to view.

A Commentary track is included, with the director, executive producer and two female lead actresses, which I confess I didn't get around to listening to. There's a static, very low budget, ten minute 'talking head' session with the actor John Jarratt, who talks about inventing the cough and laugh for the character he plays and reveals that he went 'method' for the first time in his career, which made him a difficult person to be around on set. A deleted scene and theatrical trailer round out the package.

Wolf Creek won't be to all tastes, and there are times when the stupidity of the lead characters will have you jumping up and down in frustration, but if you can stand the tension, gore and horror of the last 30 minutes you're in for an 'enjoyable', if rather uncomfortable, ride with plenty of scares. It's certainly worth a rental for horror fans, and if you number films like Hostel, The Chain Saw Massacre (the original, not the dreadful remakes), or the SAW franchise amongst your favourites you should definitely check this one out.