Wolf Creek
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DVD Cover Information
Audio: English (Original Language); Swedish (Original Language)Format: NTSC
Audience Rating: Unrated
Movie Reviews of Wolf Creek
Movie Review: Torture Porn Mars Masterful Build-up of Tension
Summary: 2 Stars
The tension created in Wolf-Creek is unbelievable. I haven't been that wound up during a thriller since I watched "Event Horizon" when I was 13. From the very start the film creates an atmosphere of alienation and vulnerability, all set against the inhospitable backdrop of the Australian outback.
In this type of film the core group of characters usually provides a solid foundation and comfort zone for the viewer. We know these people are "Safe" as long as they stick together. In Wolf-Creek, however, the core group lacks that kind of cohesiveness, an unexpected element that isolates the characters from each other even when they are together.
We are introduced to Liz and Christy, two young Brits who embark on a spontaneous tour of Australia, content to let their impulses guide them. With them is Ben, a reckless bad-boy type the girls befriended and invited along. In such a constellation sexual tension is a given, and before the story is even underway an uneasiness has fallen over the trio.
This idle tension is turbocharged with the arrival of Mick, a grizzled 'Outbacker' who happens upon the youngsters and their broken down car - In an isolated park in the middle of the desert - At night.
The affable Ausie offers to tow their car to his garage where he promises to fix it up and send them on their way. As they sit around the campfire and talk to their new friend, Ben can't resist his macho impulse to put the back-country Mick down. In this moment, shortly before the scales of destiny tip horribly against the trio, we catch a glimpse of the real Mick hidden just below the cheerful exterior.
Unfortunately, this is where the film became unpleasant to watch. I like my excessive gore just as much as the next guy, but I'm sick of watching people being sadistically tortured.
When an alien spears a guy through the stomach and blood spews out of his mouth I lean forward, wide-eyed and say "Holy Sh**! Did you see that! Sweet!" and then I high-five the dude next to me. When some psycho paralyzes a girl with an 8inch hunting knife to the spine just as you think she's going to escape, then promises her a slow and painful death, or when he waves the same knife at a bound and bloody woman while he threatens to cut off her breasts, the only thing I feel is acute abhorrence.
The kind of violence in these films is a calculated imitation of sexual sadism, whether the sexual gratification is made explicit or not. Torture for the sake of titillating the audience, making us uneasy and selling it as thrills, is a cheap parlor trick that takes advantage of our darkest impulses. We may not be aroused by torture, but we can't seem to look away either, and once we've made peace with consuming the pain of others for entertainment, we come back again and again. The Roman's discovered this in the Colosseum, and Hollywood has rediscovered it in the modern slasher film. The popularity of the SAW series is a testament to the fact that Torture Porn sells.
I'm not judging those who loved this movie, and I'm not saying you're a sadist (although some fraction of Torture Porn fans most certainly are). Everyone is entitled to choose the type of film that entertains them, and censoring this type of content wouldn't change the fact that it would still sell. However, this film gets 2 stars from me for wasting its potential on base brutality, and this review is a warning to others who share my views not to subject themselves to this film.
Summary of Wolf Creek
Wolf Creek, written and directed by Greg McClean, is the Blair Witch Project of the Australian outback. Capitalizing on the human fear of becoming lost in the wilderness, in this case a desert crater called Wolf Creek National Park, this graphic horror film exploits the handheld camera to capture the grotesque actions of Mick Taylor (John Janatt), a sadistic serial killer. When a hip twenty-something guy, Ben Mitchell (Nathan Phillips), and two hippie-ish girls, Cassandra (Liz Hunter) and Kristy (Kestie Morassi), take a road trip and their car breaks down, they have no choice but to accept help from Mick, an eccentric rural Aussie, who, like a spider, tows them into his nightmarish lair. Mick hunts kangaroos and hates tourists, translating his fetish for knives, shotguns, and other torture devices into a need to kill humans as if they're vermin infesting his majestic landscape. Ample blood and gore leave the viewer feeling nearly as sick as the girls who are forced to watch each other die. Like Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, Mick Taylor is a savvy, calculating killer, despicable but psychologically fascinating. --Trinie DaltonMystery & Suspense DVD Video
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