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WOLF CREEK (2005) Director: Greg Mclean. Hacktors: Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, Nathan Phillips, John Jarratt. Rating: Cutting Remarks: One of the charges regularly levelled at violent movies, and horror movies in particular, is that they can desensitize viewers to real-life bloodshed. Of course, they don't. What they can do, however, is desensitize viewers to further movie violence. After a while, especially if you watch a lot of horror films, a bogstandard knife in the chest can seem passé. That's not to say that the same atrocity would seem passé in real life - to suggest so would be to grossly insult the average person's intelligence - but horror can lose its impact through repetition. What's needed, every now and again, is a real shock to the system. Something that rekindles that queasy sensation which you possibly first experienced upon watching a woman hung on a hook, while watching her boyfriend being dismembered by an obese, flesh-faced freak with a chainsaw.       Enter Wolf Creek. Along with The Devil's Rejects, it has achieved the increasingly difficult task of disturbing me greatly. Don't know about you, but I can tell when a horror movie has really done its job: at least one scene gets stuck in the processing plant of your mind and replays itself over and over. It's as if the system hasn't been able to come to terms with what has been witnessed, almost like a minor form of trauma. This hasn't happened very often over the years: off the top of my head I could cite George Sluizer's original version of The Vanishing and Michael Haneke's brilliantly bleak Austrian flick Funny Games.       The power of Wolf Creek derives in part from the fine craftmanship behind it. For one thing, Greg Mclean's direction is very strong indeed, without ever being showy. His bare bones tale is supposedly based on at least one true story of backpackers going missing in the Australian outback, and he makes full use of the environment's wide open spaces. Whereas so many horror films attempt to induce claustrophobia, here the fear is more agoraphobic. As Wolf Creek's tagline ominously notes, 'How can you be found when no-one knows you're missing?'.       Mclean's three leads are brilliantly effective. Again, they don't do anything special to announce how good they are, and that's the point. Their naturalistic performances are comparable to those in The Blair Witch Project, but with the OTT, bombastic elements toned way down. Crucially, too, these people - two English girls and an Aussie male - seem pretty likeable types. Young, hedonistic and carefree, believing that they have decades left in which to figure out their lives. As you might have guessed, this ain't necessarily so.       The way in which the plot unfolds, after the trio's drive to Wolf Creek (a vast crater, surrounded by extra terrestrial mythology), is best kept under wraps. You'll enjoy it more that way. Let's just say that the film's initial tone changes dramatically. There are surprising, shocking moments (including one which stays with me still, involving the phrase 'head on a stick'), along with sly digs at the stereotypical way in which English folk perceive Australians: Paul Hogan, crocodiles, etc.       Like The Devil's Rejects, Wolf Creek is an imperfect work of genius. Again, without giving anything away, our 'heroes' do a couple of extremely stupid things. More seriously, the ending suffers from Mclean's efforts to lend his story the ring of truth. Yet Wolf Creek, as an entity, is superb. If you've started to feel numb to modern horror cinema, this is assuredly the one to rearrange your nerve endings. DVD details: Thankfully, the movie has received the extensive two-disc treatment which it deserves. Disc One mainly features the film (natch) plus a fun and informative commentary from director Mclean and producer Greg Hearn plus actors Cassandra McGrath (Liz) and Kestie Morassi (Kristy). The latter two are Australian, which is surprising, given how well they've nailed English accents in the movie. Over on Disc Two the fun really kicks off, with an excellent 50-minute making-of doc (pretty much everything you need to know in here - just make sure you watch the film before screening it), a fascinating 21-minute interview with John Jarratt (Mick Taylor), three deleted scenes (one of which might have eased the aforementioned 'stupid things' done by Liz, had it remained in place, while you can see why the scene in the shop got cut - ludicrously unrealistic acting from a bit-part actress!). The teaser trailer, TV spots and the expected lovely audio round out a great package. Release Date: Wolf Creek will be released on two-disc DVD and UMD in the UK on January 16, 2006. It receives a wide US theatrical release on January 6, 2006. [Interview with Greg Mclean] [Reviews Menu] [Home] © Copyright Slasherama 2002-present