Friday Fright Club: Wolf Creek

I’ve never been fan of Australia. Filled to the brim exclusively with animals that are trying to kill you. Well, today’s Fright Club brings you an export that the land Down Under is not really known for: horror.

Wolf Creek, claiming to be (very) loosely based on a true story, tells of three backpackers who are backpacking across Australia. I know, terrifying! Unbelievably though, it gets worse … a lot worse. Their travels bring them to Wolf Creek natural park, which contains a giant crater. On visiting the crater they find their car has stopped working, and this is when they get helped by a seemingly good samaritan named Mick Taylor, played to perfection by John Jarratt.

I won’t say what follows, but this film is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Part slasher, part torture film, Wolf Creek is a lot more brutal that you would expect and definitely ranks up with other horrors like Texas Chain Saw massacre for its levels of violence. I cant’ really imagine anything much scarier than a hillbilly in the Australian outback, wielding a Crocodile Dundee knife.

What Wolf Creek managed to do is to being  unique and memorable and financially successful in a time where an audience was starting to revel in a bit of the old ultra-violence, where every other film tried to be a Saw clone. Not bad for a time where every second horror film was a Saw clone. It really managed to be unpredictable, breaking away from a genre that has a tendency to get very generic.

So, I’ll admit, maybe Australia does have a few things to offer. I used to be thankful for Nicole Kidman, but lately she’s turned into a bit of a horror film on her own. Yikes!

Last Updated: July 12, 2013