Director: Greg McLean
Cast: Kestie Morassi, Nathan Phillips, John Jarratt
Year: 2005
Rating: UR
EERin's rating: "Could have been so much more" - 2 out of 5 Slashes
Oy! Such irritation when one wrong move ruins an entire piece of work. It's like a friend saying they're going to bake you a delicious apple pie. Your mouth is watering - the pie looks good, smells good, but you take a bite and something is terribly wrong. Suddenly you realize that instead of sugar your friend accidentally used salt (wa, wa, wa!). That's what happened to Wolf Creek and I felt that this film could have been such a tasty apple pie, but I was disappointed with the marring of salt.
British tourists Liz and Kristy team up with their Aussie pal Ben for a road trip adventure in the Australian outback. They make a stop at Wolf Creek for some hiking, but upon returning to their car the engine fails to start and they're stranded in the desert. As the sky darkens, a rustic-looking truck drives up manned by a Crocodile-Dundee style man named Mick Taylor. He offers to help the trio out by towing their car back to his camp where he can make repairs. Mick's "camp" turns out to be a creepy mining site that's been abandoned for years. The tired trio accept the offer of fresh drinking water from their host as he attempts to fix their car. Suddenly they all pass out and the next thing the audience sees is Liz tied up in a shed with her friends nowhere to be seen. Instead of rescuer, Mick turns into the biggest nightmare as a night of terror in the outback begins to play out.
I really like the idea of taking a stereotypical Dundee-persona Australian and turning him into the bad guy. But I'm afraid this film breaks my cardinal rule in horror - don't make the characters stupid. About half way through the film, there's pivotal scene where Liz comes to Kristy's rescue, who is being terrorized at the hands of Mick. Liz has a gun pointed at Mick (showing she clearly has never handled one before) pulls the trigger, and a bullet bounces off a metal beam and knocks Mick unconscious. It's really unclear if he is dead (but what an advantage for our heroines, yes?). But Liz thinks it's a good idea to just ignore all the handy tools/weapons surrounding her and just hit Mick on his back a couple of times with an empty gun. A perfectly good chance to overtake the bad guy is completely blown.
Now there are a lot of philanthropists who would argue against me saying, "It just goes to show that Liz and Kristy are better people and they don't have the heart to kill another human being." That's all very well and good and of course one could argue that Liz was paralyzed with fear at the moment and couldn't think very clearly. However, I can't help but feel annoyed because there were a number of things Liz could have done make sure that she and Kristy were safe from Mick. If you can't kill him, why not at least tie him up? How about locking him in a shed? The rest of the movie feels forced because these chicks blew their one chance of escape.
Spoiler scene: No need to rehash it - I think you guys can figure it out.
Bottom line: Know those pivotal TV shows where it's revealed that it was all just a dream for the main character? Here's the film version of that.
