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Wolf Creek

This film is released in the UK this weekend, but it's getting mixed reviews, many saying it's too nasty for its own good. Anyone seen it yet? Or planning to see it?
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
Esp. as no one mentions that masterpiece of Outback redneck horror - Razorback:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0087981/ ;)
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Ah, Razorback. One of the first modern horror films I ever saw, probably when I was about 10. I'd seen enough hammy Hammer, and then Razorback came along, late one night on BBC1. Purely for those sentimental reasons, I put it above Jaws, as best creature-against-man films.
 
blackhand2010 said:
Purely for those sentimental reasons, I put it above Jaws, as best creature-against-man films.
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Interestingly I hear there will be a new special edition coming out with a documentary called "Jaws on Trotters" ;)

I also think I first saw it when it was shown on the Beeb ;)
 
It's been touted on the London Underground by a minimalist poster emphasising it's "based on a true story!"

To be polite - what a load of cobblers!
 
I saw it on it's brief cinema release, I think I was the only person in the cinema. Great and gruesome movie.

On the subject of strange movies set in Outback, I'd like to see Peter Weir's The Cars that Ate Paris wherein the inhabitants of small town lure motorists into accidents and cannibalize the cars, again.
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
Interestingly I hear there will be a new special edition coming out with a documentary called "Jaws on Trotters" ;)
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Special Edition, you say? Now where did I put that credit card...
 
blackhand2010 said:
Mighty_Emperor said:
Interestingly I hear there will be a new special edition coming out with a documentary called "Jaws on Trotters" ;)
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Special Edition, you say? Now where did I put that credit card...
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Someohe rudely added the info as a review at Amazon:

An Australian version of Razorback from Umbrella entertainment is coming out september 21st. It is a special edition

The Aspect Ratio 2:35:1
Dolby 5.1
Deleted Scenes
Doco "Jaws on Trotters" which is 70 minutes long interviews with Director Russell Mulcahy, Producer Hal McElroy, Razorback designer Bob McCarron and cast members Judy Morris, Chris Haywood
Audio recollections from Gregory Harrison
Theatrical Trailer
Stills and poster gallery

The Umbrella will be much better. Its all regions but you need a PAL system
You can order it from HMV
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www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007 ... ntmagaz-21

The one at Amazon is the Anchor Bay release with reasonable extras (only seems to be a US VHS release at the moment):

# Featurette: Razorcut, featuring interviews with music producer Trevor Horn and journalists Alan Jones and Kim Newman (15m)
# Theatrical Trailer
# Biographies
# Film Notes
# Stills Gallery
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www.anchorbay.co.uk/perl/search.pl?CO=ABD4384

Release details for the Aussie version:

September 21

Blood on Satan's Claw - Umbrella Entertainment (TBC)
Horror Hospital - Umbrella Entertainment (TBC)
Razorback - Umbrella Entertainment (M)
The Asphyx- Umbrella Entertainment (TBC)
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www.terroraustralis.net/releasedates.html

Umbrella Entertainment are rebuilding their site at the moent so its not too informative:

www.umbrellaent.com.au
 
Wolf Creek has been getting good reviews from movie mags, supposedly quite brutal. Really looking forward to this one.

It's been touted on the London Underground by a minimalist poster emphasising it's "based on a true story!"

To be polite - what a load of cobblers!
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That is over the top, but the creators have said in interviews they were inspired by stories of backpackers going missing and that famous murder of some backpackers a few years back. Not quite the same as 'based on a true story', though.
 
It's a bit like saying The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is based on a true story. "Inspired by a true story" would be more accurate.
 
gncxx said:
It's a bit like saying The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is based on a true story. "Inspired by a true story" would be more accurate.
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Pos. "inspired by real events"?

Anyway good review in the Garudian (and Peter Bradshaw isn't usually that complementary about films so 4 tars out of 5 is remarkably good):

Wolf Creek

**** Cert 18

Peter Bradshaw
Friday September 16, 2005
The Guardian



Wolf Creek is a swaggeringly nasty, self-assured piece of ordeal horror set in the Australian outback. With nods to Duel and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, first- time writer-director Greg McLean shows the neo-goreheads from the US and UK how it ought to be done. Liz (Cassandra Magrath) , Kristy (Kestie Morassi) and Ben (Nathan Phillips) are backpackers driving across country to Wolf Creek, the site of a prehistoric meteorite strike: an eerily vast crater in which uncanny things, far scarier than anything at Hanging Rock, are said to happen. In that colossal and implacable landscape, they find their car won't start. And they are vastly relieved when an amiable old Bushman called Mick (John Jarratt) shows up out of nowhere and offers to tow them to his remote shack, while he fixes their car and lets them sleep the night.

McLean's film shows its high IQ by letting nothing scary happen for around half an hour; there is something absorbingly real and even romantic in the way a shy attraction develops between Liz and Ben. The stomach-turning events that follow are leavened with moments of grisly comedy. There is a brilliant joke about Crocodile Dundee's catchphrase: "You call that a knife?" Spielberg himself might have admired the buttock-clenching suspense in which someone hears a faint bang outside his stationary vehicle and gets out to find a bullet hole in the thermos flask he had placed on the car roof just a moment before, the liquid glugging out of it. Then a distant clang and an approaching whine of a second bullet will have you ducking and yelping in alarm. This is the best Australian movie since Lantana, and deserves an audience outside the horror fanbase.
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www.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0 ... 04,00.html
 
Yeah, and Mark Kermode raved about it on Radio Five Live this afternoon.
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
...Esp. as no one mentions that masterpiece of Outback redneck horror - Razorback:
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Featuring Bill Kerr, IIRC, regular sidekick on Hhhhhhhancocks Half Hour. Bit of a creative leap!
 
Roadshow delays 'Wolf'

Thriller put on hold after written request from case prosecutor

By PAUL CHAI

Distrib Roadshow Films is delaying the release of frightener "Wolf Creek" in Australia's Northern Territory after a request from the prosecutors of a man charged with killing a Blighty backpacker who is one of the film's inspirations.

Bradley John Murdoch will go on trial today, accused of murdering Peter Falconio and abducting his girlfriend Joanne Lees in 2001 after ambushing them on a lone stretch of highway in the Territory. "Wolf Creek," about three backpackers abducted by a man in the Outback, was based on the Falconio case and on a similar case during the 1990s when seven backpackers were murdered.

A Roadshow reprep said Friday that they received a request from the director of public prosecutions in the Northern Territory to view the film, which was followed by a written request to delay its release. It is feared the film will prejudice the jury.

Pic will open today across most of Australia, but a new date will be set for the Northern Territory.
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Source
 
Optimum will be relasing this on DVD early next year:

Wolf Creek in January

Optimum Home Entertainment have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of Wolf Creek for 16th January 2006 priced at £17.99. Based on terrifying true events, Wolf Creek is unforgettable, shocking and genuinely scary. A cinematic hand grenade, WOLF CREEK unites all the elements of classic horror movies to create a uniquely Australian ‘Boogieman” in Mick Taylor.

The story begins with three back-packers heading into the isolated Australian outback. After several days of driving, they finally arrive at Wolf Creek National Park and set up camp. The following morning they realise that their watches don’t work and their car won’t start. As panic sets in, they notice strange lights heading straight for them and a friendly local offering help. This is where the real “fun” begins, and the trio must face one of the most frightening madmen in the history of film.

Written and directed by Greg McLean, Wolf Creek is not based on any one story but echoes some of the elements of recent crimes of hideous unparalleled violence and brutality.

Features on this Two-Disc Special Edition include...

Disc One: Main Feature

* Dolby Digital 5.1
* Audio Commentary by Director Greg McLean, Producer and cast


Disc Two: Extra Features

* Cast and Crew Interviews
* Meet Mick Taylor: Interview with John Jarrett
* Making Of Documentary
* Deleted Scenes
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www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=59073
 
My next door neighbour's good friend is Greg McLean who wrote & directed Wolf Creek. (I have even stayed in his place near Victor Harbour when he lent it to my neighbour for a week - a real FOAF!)
I remember my neighbour reading the original draught of the play before it was a film.
I am pretty sure it is not based on real events.
I will try & find out if anyone is interested...
 
I saw it a few weeks ago. What's in the film is not based on anything real that I know of, but it is supposed to be loosely tied to the Peter Falconio disappearance. The film was shot in my favourite place in the whole wide world - the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, but set in Outback WA. John Jarrat was excellent as a psycho-sadistic inversion of Crock Dundee, but I wasn't much impressed by the three young newcomers - I guess it doesn't take much talent to scream RUUUUUUN! at the top of yer tonsils for 60 minutes... The plot was fairly standard horror fare, and the casting was off (apart from Jarrat) but the production quality was good and the cinematography was very good. Once was enough though. Most critics have been appalled at the explicit butchery, but they've been giving it around 4 out of 5, most of 'em. I'd go a 2 with a push.
 
From the lions mouth (or wolfs mouth?):
I checked with my neighbour & I had stuffed up. He is friends with the executive producer, Matt ?, not Greg McLean. (Illustrates how easily FOAF stories can be muddled up!)
Anyway, he confirmed the tale is not based upon any real events as such but is loosely based on the 'backpacker' murders in Australia a good few years ago. The timing of 'Wolf Creef' is purely coincidental with the Peter Falconio case but has worked well for the release of the film.
I still haven't seen it.
 
Based on true events is a bit of a stretch.

Inspired by the Ivan Milat and Peter Falconio cases is more accurate.

There's a lot about what happens that is taken from the Ivan Milat case. The torture shed for instance. The fact that he chose backpackers as his victims. People who wouldn't necessarily be missed for a while.

The connection to the Peter Falconio case, which is currently before the NT courts, is a bit less direct, but there are some influences there. And the subject matter is close enough that the delay of the release of the film is probably a good idea.

There's a lot of differences, as well. The film is set in the West. Ivan Milat lived in Canberra, and killed his victims between Canberra and Sydney. Peter Falconio disappeared in the Northern Territory. Ivan Milat was a public servant (I think) - which is how they tracked him down. (All the murders took place around public holidays in Canberra.) The murderer in the film isn't.

Look, if Amityville Horror can be based on a true story, so can this. But then so can Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
 
Saw this last Tuesday. I thought it was good but not great. Everyone that I went with complained that it took too long for the nastiness to begin. There was even a few walkouts. The guy that played the psycho was very good. It's not as gory and violent as the ads would lead you to believe.

One thing I have finally learned from movies is that if my car breaks down in a remote area, it's better to just go ahead and take your own life than try to repair it, because a long, drawn out, horrible death awaits you for sure.
 
Highly recommend this low budget Aussie thriller to everyone. I guarantee it will make any of you fine English folk rethink your backpacking holiday of Australia.

The film is very loosely based on the Joanne Lees/ Peter Falconio case and the Ivan Milat case.

John Jarat is fantastic as Mick Meredith. Lots of chills on a low budget, hell I no longer wanna leave the safety of the city and head outback ever again.
 
I thought this was rubbish. Most of the film was an advert for the Australian outback, it took way too long to get into the actual plot. The characters behaviour is also incredibly illogical. It's the only time I've ever shouted at a horror movie for being so stupid. I seem to be the only one who didn't think it was that gory either.
 
hokum6 said:
I thought this was rubbish. Most of the film was an advert for the Australian outback, it took way too long to get into the actual plot. The characters behaviour is also incredibly illogical. It's the only time I've ever shouted at a horror movie for being so stupid. I seem to be the only one who didn't think it was that gory either.
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Agree with hokum 6.I rented this & was bored to the point of watching the thing at 4x speed to get it over with.
 
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