grantss Three friends are touring around the outback of Western Australia when their car breaks down. A local, Mick Taylor, offers to help them and invites them back to his place. Little do they know that he is a psychopathic killer.Very intriguing and engaging. Certainly not your average slasher-horror-thriller, though the bar is set very low there. The tension is built gradually, with the bad guy taking a while to reveal himself. Doesn't borrow too heavily from horror clichés and the conclusion is never obvious.Great work by John Jarratt as Mick Taylor - very convincing and suitably menacing and superficially charming as the killer. Solid performances by Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi and Nathan Phillips as the three tourists.

ritor22 If you are looking for the typical Hollywood screamer then go elsewhere. This one just keeps your heart pounding and makes you feel very uneasy. I watched this with my wife and 18 yr old son. About 1/3 of the way in, I was watching it by myself...it actually made them feel THAT uncomfortable. What some people don't realize is the inspiration for this movie, Ivan Milat, is sitting in Goulburn Prison in Australia. He is commonly called the "backpacker killer". One reason it was played down was its direct affect on tourism. One detail was the fact that Police theorized he deliberately paralyzed some of his victims to immobilize them but to keep them conscious. Police are also sure that he killed more but cannot prove it. This movie probably scared Australians more because if you live out in the country... everybody knows a "bloke" like Mick Taylor.

James Theodore Smith I was anxious to see this movie because I had the uncut version. I was expecting gore, violence, a huge body count etc...There was none of the above. I think Mick killed two people in the whole film? It was slow- dragged throughout with nothing happening. I was at least expecting a climatic ending- nothing. Without the bad language this could have easily received a PG-13 rating, no sex, very little violence and gore. This film was more psychological than anything else. A complete waste of time. I noticed that part 2 is now on Netflix- I may give the sequel a chance. It can't be any worse than the first- Hopefully there will be some decent gore and a higher body count...and one last thing: Spoiler- When the dumb girl is in the car graveyard with about 12 cars she happens to pick and sit in the one car where Mick just happens to be waiting in the back seat: Is he psychic too...? and to just leave him on the ground with a flesh wound when she could have easily bashed his head in or kill him- no, she hits him in the back a few times. and based on actual events? What an insult to women.

Leofwine_draca WOLF CREEK is one of those modern-day, pared-down horror films that rely on action for suspense and deliver a new brand of extreme horror in which the terror comes, not from the supernatural, but from the sadistic mind of a relentless killer. What makes WOLF CREEK different is that it's Australian, which means it comes with its own distinctive visual flavour, and director Gary McLean is bright enough to make the eerie wilderness of the Australian outback a character just as important as the three protagonists of the story. An isolated landscape, full of rusting barbed wire, the lonely barks of solitary dogs, and a creepy giant meteorite crater, this is a film designed to put you off ever wanting to visit Australia ever again.The first half of the film is the best, a slow-burning build up populated by creepy cameo characters and an ever-increasing sense of foreboding. Rather than creating likable characters, McLean pretends the backpackers just as they are, so we get Nathan Phillips as a bit of a jock and Kestie Morassi as somebody incessantly whiny and annoying; Cassandra Magrath does better as the genuinely fragile Liz. Best of all, though, is John Jarratt, who gives one of the best bad guy performances I've ever seen in a movie; he's so evil because he's so NICE, and only by watching this film will you see what I mean. Jarratt is horrifying and far more frightening than Freddy or Jason ever can be.The film seems to have achieved some controversy because of its violent content, but in a world full of SAW movies, it's nothing much; a few flashes of brutal violence and a nasty stabbing, that's it. It's disturbing, though, because McLean is good at filming horror, building up the suspense incessantly before thumping you in the chest with something you don't want to see happen. The similarly-themed HILLS HAVE EYES remake and HOSTEL may have more bloodshed and depravity, but the more subtle terrors of WOLF CREEK are just as powerful as any big bucks horror flick with Hollywood's backing.