Film: Wolf Creek

[L2R]

I also didnt really understand how the police could search everywhere in that area and not find the dudes hideout, but thats the way it goes I guess....

Nice review.

Just FYI, the aussie outback is as vast and empty as an ocean. Finding this guys place in all that space is like a needle in a haystack.

it IS very loosely basd on real events, but they are er exagerrated...read up on Ivan the backpack murderer...forget his last name..

Ivan Milat

This film was delayed in it's release in the northern territory so that it couldn't influence a pending trial of another backpacker killer. This character was a cross between this person (whose name i've forgotten) and Ivan Milat.

 

[warriah]

I enjoyed the film, but from the posts in this thread, I was expecting far worse blood and gore, etc. It was a lightweight compared to some of the things I've seen in that division.

I liked it. I bet that guy was thinking "So this is why Mum told me to stay away from the outback..."

 

[xena]

is it possible that us americans are seeing a very edited version of the original? it seems like most of the austrailians were sickened by what they saw... whereas the americans aren't affected. i personally haven't seen it yet.

did anyone hear anything about editing before premiering in the states?

 

[L2R]

It has happened before (editing for US), but i doubt it in this case. I think the US audiences have a much more ingrained preconceived notion of what a scary or slasher film should be and when it doesn't fit the criteria, they get upset. Look at Blair Witch for example.
Genre labels can really fuck up a potentially great theatrical experience.

 

[warriah]

is it possible that us americans are seeing a very edited version of the original? it seems like most of the austrailians were sickened by what they saw... whereas the americans aren't affected. i personally haven't seen it yet.

did anyone hear anything about editing before premiering in the states?

That was the first thing that crossed my mind when I got out of the theater... that we'd gotten an edited version.

 

[vibr8tor]

awww man, I'd be pissed if our version is watered down. Can someone from australia describe a really gross scene?

 

[L2R]

The grossest part for me was the knife in the spine shot.

But you're missing my point. This movie isn't about how much ketchup you see. It's the mood. It's the ordinary characters in ordinary situations having something extraordinarily vicious happen to them.

Just checked. IMDB have nothing in the "Alternate Versions" tab. I think we all saw the same stuff.

 

[warriah]

Guess we're all just a little desensitised.

 

[belfort]

like i said, how can any director top what tobe hooper did with the original texas chainsaw??we have seen everythig else for the most part....upping to the gore to extremes and the torture is just lame and does nothng more to disturb me...it actually bos me...

 

[Fried Man]

how the fuck can a horror movie have unnecessary violence? funniest thing ive heard in a while.

 

[up all night]

I really can't handle blood and gore but even I thought this was pretty tame. Australia is so retarded. I think we make great low budget left of centre films but everyone seemed to think Wolf Creek was the second coming.

The events are actually based on fact [and for once a movie tells the truth!] As has been mentioned, it was loosely based on a serial killer called Ivan Milat who killed a whole heap of backpackers as well as a case involving an Englishman Peter Falconio who disappeared in the middle of the desert. A guy was just recently found guilty of his murder.

I thought this movie was terrible. I didn't have any sympathy for the characters at all. Even though the start of the movie was long and drawn out it didn't seem to actually build the characters at all. The kiss scene seemed really out of place and totally unnecessary - kind of like it was simply tacked on.

That being said, the outback is truly eerie and I thought John Jarrett did a great job as the evil serial killer. In Australia he was on a TV renovations show in which he was the loveable guy next door type so it was strange to see him murdering young adults.

 

[L2R]

...but everyone seemed to think Wolf Creek was the second coming.

Walk into any film with this in mind and you're guaranteed to be disappointed.

 

[SA]

At one point I asked if the speakers on the other side of the cinema were working, because all I could hear from my side was occasional rustling, the odd giggle and a stray scream. :D

It wasn't exactly Hollywood, but I guess for a "based on a true story" Aussie flick it was okay. If there were more of the spine severing moments, I'd rate it higher.

 

[drEaMtiMe*@#]

i thought that the cinematography was really good but other than that it was an average movie. i think that if maybe either of the girls had been able to pull off better english accents it would have made their characters a little more charming or something and the movie seem more "real".

 

[drEaMtiMe*@#]

meh. It started off like an Australian Tourism ad and finished off like a KEEP THE FUCK AWAY FROM AUSTRALIA anti-tourism ad.

LMAO.

had to quote that. such a golden description

 

[CuriousCub]

***spoiler alert

This movie actually moved me to tears by how realistic (these things really occur, in such a vast place like that especially) and fatal it was as a whole, not necessarily just the acting. Everything about it, how you can run into shit and have no way out, how just a single person can end up having all the control in the world over everyone around you for that period of time, and never get caught. They were all so seperated and stayed that way for the most part under the wrath of this one man. Was it unrealistic how they never passed out in that climate w/o any water during their foraying into escaping? that was about the only thing i could find being unrealistic with this portrayal of an event. That is so creepy how the man knew every inch of that portion of the outback. I don't even want to go there as a tourist anymore.

It was so moving, how hopeful to hopeless everything became, and how believable it was that the police were no help (are they ever?) and what he must of felt like never knowing where his friend's bodies are. Wow, what a feeling to have to bear. His last memories became my last memories.

the violins, how minimal the orchestral music was, sounded amazing. i can't say enough about how sychronized (and perfectly timed!) the music was with the portrayal of events.

one of the last scenes was just captivating, where he ended up resting near the road and the kangaroos (THE ONLY ONES WE SEE THE ENTIRE TIME) looked at him like they knew what happened, and then languidly jumped off into the gorgeously gloomy bleeding sunset, leaving him behind. Again, amazing timing. ( i would've tried to hop in the kang's little pouch and ride off too, hehe)


"
Just another point as well....Ben allegedly had a crush on one of the girls he was travelling with, but he had absolutely no chemistry with her at all. He and the other chick clicked together way better. It was a strange characterisation and considering it has no real bearing on the way the movie turns out I don't know why they didn't just alter that part of the story once they saw those three actors interact..."

haha, i noticed this as well. The guy seemed kinda gay, or if not him someone else had a gay factor occuring, because there was such a non sexual vibe among the trio.

the growing disconnection despite the crush this trip had on them is what made it all the more realistic....there were no time for building intimacy when one was so preoccupied with the unchartered territory and trying to take it all in.

in most shitty horror flix, they spend tons of time building relationships and fucking, which is so unreal when they're trying to accomplish huge events that make up the film's premise. If these tourists fucked the day away, how could we really believe that they were trying to go on this trip for a legit purpose. there is no way a person could be so able to devote equal amounts of time to mulitple big endeavors.

 

[CuriousCub]

how the fuck can a horror movie have unnecessary violence? funniest thing ive heard in a while.

cuz not all horror is violence, duh. truly horrific things dont have to be violent.

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I have to admit the thought of that situation, and the body of the guy before him who actually had suffered such a terrible fate (not to mention the poor dog kept hungry in that small cage) made me a little queasy. But like I said, I was expecting to have to watch this guy get eaten alive, I was suprised when he escaped. And this was by far the WORST thing in the movie...I was ready for something much more.

WHY NOT KILL THE BASTARD???
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agree. fuck this was horrible to realize happening. between the dog and the half-eaten man, i was angry and scared. that cave-environment they were in was just a trip. the outback looks like a nightmare, all nice and low-growing on the surface (no place to hide!), and deadly and cavey a few feet below.

i think they didnt kill becuz they were unsure of what could happen to them--they were still thinking there was indeed a way out, and that they were gonna find help, and they don't want to be completely responsible for the fate of this man. They just wan out. after studying domestic violence, im not surprised anymore at how afraid people, especially women, are of killing a person even in a situation as fatal as that. they new nothing of their surroundings or how close help was or why this man decided to treat them this way. Their inability to understand why he changed on them, his split personality, made them more afraid of him, but still dependent on him in one way or another, because they still had some kind of hope that something in him could help them.
To me that expained why they actually went back and tried to use more of his resources (find a car) to leave the place, rather than running away from his site altogether. if anything was really stupid, that action was. I think i understand why they would do that tho.
The guy made the smartest move by waking up and getting out of there w/o looking back once.

how do you know what is right to do when you have nothing to base what's right on? when you react in a panic, you try not to go to what you think at the time would be seen as extreme to others, not yourself. it's so weird how self-conscious we can get about protecting ourselves even in our most final hours.


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How did he know she would get in THAT car? And why didnt she hear him coming, they are out in the middle of nowhere, in silence..she didnt hear his truck pull up? T
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didn't you realize by now that this guy is an expert in outback living? he's like the martha stewart of outback living, especially with the way he acts like he takes care of people and sends them on their way. he knows everything there is to know out there and by that time SHE even knows this becuz she saw all the people he's killed through the videos.
this dude could have cameras, sensors, sonar, any type of detection device all over his camp site or on his person.
as for the car, he probably didn't know, he just guessed. which doesn't matter anyway, becuz any car she'd get in he'd kill her before she drove out. he still would've gotten to have done what he wanted to do. i doubt he parked close enuf for her to hear him. he saw that she took his set of keys when he got back to his car, and got to the garage before she did.

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I also didnt really understand how the police could search everywhere in that area and not find the dudes hideout, but thats the way it goes I guess....
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i did, becuz the man again expressed his expertise early on in the show by saying there is so much unchartered land that people couldn't even find their way out that lived out there and other things i wish i could remember, he talked so fast.....that was the key part to the film. could someone quote this section of script where he talks about this? it was so informative.

 

[axl blaze]

this movie left me feeling unimpressed, don't believe the (over)hype. 2/5

 

[Jabberwocky]

Just watched it on DVD.

I also thought the dialogue between the characters at the start was un-natural, sort of too scripted and not much feeling behind it at all. Also, it did take a while to get things going.
But i did enjoy the film.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I had little sympathy for the characters after they managed to disable the killer and not finish him off. I would have stayed around and taken however much time it would have required to slowly hack his head from his body, even with a little Swiss army knife.

Exactly my thoughts. All she did after she had shot him in the ear[?] was hit him on the back twice with the butt of the gun? Fuck that i'd have smashed him over the skull until the gun snapped, then i'd have used my feet!!