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By Dominic Corry

Wolf Creek

Cast: Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, John Jarrat

Director: Greg McLean

Young Australian Ben (Nathan Phillips) has hooked up with two British backpackers Liz (Cassandra Magrath -SeaChange) and Kristy (Kestie Morassi - Strange Bedfellows), and together they are travelling across the Australian Outback in a beat up old station wagon.

After stopping to check out the titular scenic spot, they return to their car and are perturbed to discover it won't start. Being as isolated as they are, the trio are eager to accept help from a friendly ocker bloke in a truck named Mick (John Jarrat - McLeod's Daughters), who happens across their predicament several hours later.

But is Mick the diamond geezer he appears to be?

Horror cinema is in an interesting place at the moment. There are two main strands dominating - CGI-infused supernatural stories (The Ring; The Grudge; The Amityville Horror), and the renaissance of the grisly backwoods survival film (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake; The Hills Have Eyes). Wolf Creek, while possessing a nicely relatable antipodean groove, fits in the latter category.

It really takes it time setting up the three main characters, letting the audience gently get to know them before any of the grisly stuff kicks in. This is one of several areas where Wolf Creek goes further than its filmic peers - most horrors of this kind are populated by interchangeable pretty young things, but Ben, Liz and Kristy come to life realistically.

This not only enhances the tension of the bad stuff when it happens, it also makes the film feel somehow less exploitative. No bones about it, Wolf Creek features some very extreme violence and anyone with a distaste for such material should stay far away, but it never descends into simply a parade of unfeeling gruesomeness.

It's more like a gruesomeness you can feel in every nerve. Whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on what you expect from a movie. I for one thoroughly enjoyed it, but there were a couple of walk outs in the screening I attended.

As played out as the survival horror genre often appears to be, writer/director Greg McLean often manages to make Wolf Creek seem fresh. To describe how would spoil some of the more inventive moments of the film, but the Australian Outback setting has a lot to do with it.

Wolf Creek has fun acknowledging, subverting and embracing certain Australian stereotypes. It is also amusingly informed by Australian cinema - at various times it recalls the silent eeriness of Picnic at the Hanging Rock; the road raging intensity of Mad Max and the ocker geniality of Crocodile Dundee. A specific reference to the latter film makes for one of the best, if also nastiest, moments in the film.

Wolf Creek purports to be based on true events, notably the Ivan Milat backpacker murders of the 90s. But the audience can take some, if not substantial, relief from the fact that it's clear McLean has taken certain liberties.

With practically all modern horror films derived from some already existing form, it's a rare treat to find one that offers even slightly original pleasures. It's also nice to come across a film that could never be accused of not living up to its self-assigned levels of intensity.

Wolf Creek is a nasty little piece of work, and that's meant in the best possible sense.

Highly recommended.

Dominic Corry

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