polymorphikos
Scrofulous Fig-Merchant
Wolf Creek (2005 – out now)
Written/Directed by Greg McLean
4/5
Liz Hunter (Cassandra Magrath) and her good friend Kristy (Kestie Morassi) are two English girls, back-packing around Australia and winding-up in Broome, where they meet pleasant young Sydney-sider Ben (Nathan Phillips), with whom they form a plan to drive cross-country to Darwin and from their to Cairns. This entails days of the rolling wilderness of the Outback, into which the trio have factored a lengthy detour to visit Wolf Creek – the second-largest meteor impact crater in the world.
Along the way, Liz and Ben’s feelings for each-other become more than platonic, and the two share snatched kisses under the approving eye of Kristy, seated high above the lip of the spectacular crater.
Upon returning to their car, the three are annoyed to find that the car will not start, and are forced to wait long into the night until they are happened upon by a local by the name of Mick Taylor (John Jarratt), an All-Australian, acubra-sporting type with a broad accent and avuncular demeanour. He offers to tow the car back to his camp at an abandoned mining facility, and when they have arrived the four sit around the fire swapping jokes and listening to tales of Mick’s former life as a pest-shooter on a distant farm, before finally falling asleep as Mick goes to work on the car.
When Liz wakes-up she is bound hand and foot in a machine-shed, and alone.
WolfCreekhas five things going for it – cinematography, performances, empathetic characters, a memorable setting, and the fact that it is actually scary. The visuals are stunning, with a slightly washed-out look and intimate viewpoints on a surreal and unusual landscape. And the people that inhabit this landscape are all thoroughly-believable, with the three victims set up as such realistic, likeable people that you spend the first half of the film hoping that maybe you were wrong, and this is actually an up-beat road-movie about learning to love again or something. But then John Jarratt enters the scene, initially in the type of role that he is best known for in Australia – as a pleasant, avuncular bloke. It is therefore especially unsettling when this icon of Australian film takes an icon of Australian culture and turns it into a truly-horrible monster. Jarratt’s Mick Taylor is an especially-memorable bogeyman.
With its familiar set-up, gory content, and pretences of factuality (it opens with “based upon actual events”), WolfCreek owes a lot to horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But rather than slavishly-ape a well-worn formula, Greg McLean’s film plays with conventions, pulling nasty tricks as it uses the viewers’ expectations against them. Subtle references to this classic and others also litter the film, but rather than being there purely as “aren’t I clever” decoration, they work in their own right to build delicate touches of horror. The off-hand licking of a finger, or a shed full of disused cars, all work to great effect.
That said, WolfCreek is not a perfect film. The ending is a little weak, which is a pity, as a slightly more accomplished handling of the ending as we have it would have capped-off an excellent endeavour. It’s not enough to hurt the film, but it did leave me slightly dissatisfied. It was really a matter of phrasing and editing, though, and otherwise alright.
So in summation, this is probably the best Australian genre film in years, and also one of the best horror/thrillers I’ve scene in ages, if not ever. With its careful blending of the very-human and the subtly-supernatural, there are scenes that are sure to stay with the viewer quite a while. The things suffered by his characters, the careful handling of them, and the absolute sympathy that the makers engage usa with all add-up to make something truly fresh, moving, and quite horrifying.
Written/Directed by Greg McLean
4/5
Liz Hunter (Cassandra Magrath) and her good friend Kristy (Kestie Morassi) are two English girls, back-packing around Australia and winding-up in Broome, where they meet pleasant young Sydney-sider Ben (Nathan Phillips), with whom they form a plan to drive cross-country to Darwin and from their to Cairns. This entails days of the rolling wilderness of the Outback, into which the trio have factored a lengthy detour to visit Wolf Creek – the second-largest meteor impact crater in the world.
Along the way, Liz and Ben’s feelings for each-other become more than platonic, and the two share snatched kisses under the approving eye of Kristy, seated high above the lip of the spectacular crater.
Upon returning to their car, the three are annoyed to find that the car will not start, and are forced to wait long into the night until they are happened upon by a local by the name of Mick Taylor (John Jarratt), an All-Australian, acubra-sporting type with a broad accent and avuncular demeanour. He offers to tow the car back to his camp at an abandoned mining facility, and when they have arrived the four sit around the fire swapping jokes and listening to tales of Mick’s former life as a pest-shooter on a distant farm, before finally falling asleep as Mick goes to work on the car.
When Liz wakes-up she is bound hand and foot in a machine-shed, and alone.
WolfCreekhas five things going for it – cinematography, performances, empathetic characters, a memorable setting, and the fact that it is actually scary. The visuals are stunning, with a slightly washed-out look and intimate viewpoints on a surreal and unusual landscape. And the people that inhabit this landscape are all thoroughly-believable, with the three victims set up as such realistic, likeable people that you spend the first half of the film hoping that maybe you were wrong, and this is actually an up-beat road-movie about learning to love again or something. But then John Jarratt enters the scene, initially in the type of role that he is best known for in Australia – as a pleasant, avuncular bloke. It is therefore especially unsettling when this icon of Australian film takes an icon of Australian culture and turns it into a truly-horrible monster. Jarratt’s Mick Taylor is an especially-memorable bogeyman.
With its familiar set-up, gory content, and pretences of factuality (it opens with “based upon actual events”), WolfCreek owes a lot to horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But rather than slavishly-ape a well-worn formula, Greg McLean’s film plays with conventions, pulling nasty tricks as it uses the viewers’ expectations against them. Subtle references to this classic and others also litter the film, but rather than being there purely as “aren’t I clever” decoration, they work in their own right to build delicate touches of horror. The off-hand licking of a finger, or a shed full of disused cars, all work to great effect.
That said, WolfCreek is not a perfect film. The ending is a little weak, which is a pity, as a slightly more accomplished handling of the ending as we have it would have capped-off an excellent endeavour. It’s not enough to hurt the film, but it did leave me slightly dissatisfied. It was really a matter of phrasing and editing, though, and otherwise alright.
So in summation, this is probably the best Australian genre film in years, and also one of the best horror/thrillers I’ve scene in ages, if not ever. With its careful blending of the very-human and the subtly-supernatural, there are scenes that are sure to stay with the viewer quite a while. The things suffered by his characters, the careful handling of them, and the absolute sympathy that the makers engage usa with all add-up to make something truly fresh, moving, and quite horrifying.
