Wolf Creek (2005) - a horror masterpiece?
This is one of the most powerful films ever made, and a king among horror movies.
Like The Exorcist, its deviations from routine horror are what make it special.
The first hour of this lean 90-minute punch to the gut is all character development. You forget you’re watching a notorious horror as Ben, Liz and Kristy hang out and go on their road trip. The superb performances and docu-style create a realism that draws you in, your ‘it’s just a movie’ defences are cleverly being dismantled before the nightmare begins.
The shots of the outback combined with what we know is coming creates a subtle dread and spiritual unease. Rural Australia is beautiful, but unsympathetic. There’s evil out there, it just hasn’t manifested yet.
The next masterstroke is the portrayal of Mick - he’s goofy and weirdly funny to begin with, which combines with the mounting panic of the young trio to elicit nervous laughs. With John Jarratt’s commanding performance and Greg McLean’s assured direction, the latter has us in the palm of his hand. The dread grows as Mick’s playful humour gradually gives way to menacing stares and creepy stories about dead animals.
Then the film suddenly plummets like a rollercoaster straight to hell. The suffering of the girls as Mick humiliates and taunts them is what makes this a hundred times more disturbing than countless horrors with lashings more gore. Kristy moans and begs like a young child, she has been psychologically ruined and just wants the torment to end, but Mick ramps up the torture, stuffing her face in his goin and threatening to ‘cut your tits off!’ It’s harrowing.
This is where Wolf Creek casts off the safety net of typical Hollywood horror. Mick isn’t running around with a knife stabbing young women, he rapes them… that’s not ‘fun’. Even worse, he’ll butcher his victims and keep them alive so he can fuck what’s left. It’s a level of evil we rarely get to see, and juxtaposed with his incongruous charming Aussie bumpkin demeanour we’ve got a horror icon for the ages.
For all the criticisms of the film’s violence, we see very little. With Kristy, her bloodied face and groin alongside her desperate screams suggest she’s been raped and tortured. McLean is cueing our imaginations to conjure the worst horrors.
Liz has it even worse. She gets a knife through the back, three fingers severed, and then the infamous ‘head on a stick’ treatment. It’s highly disturbing, but the worst is left to your imagination - what does Mick do to what’s left of Liz to squeeze the information out of her? 🤢 All this is happening to a real person - the character building in Act 1 pays off - this butchery is inflicted on a sweet natured English girl on vacation with her friends 😞
Another masterstroke is the unpredictability. The Strong Final Girl is actually the first to die and has the most savage death. Kristy nearly gets away but Mick eventually catches up with her and puts her down like a pig with his rifle. The film forgets about Ben, then we see him wake up and… escape! He wanders into the outback and is saved through blind luck. This taps into the bigger theme of a chaotic universe well beyond our control.
The final shot is Mick’s silhouette walking into the golden desert until he strangely vanishes. There’s almost something supernatural about him. The film flirts with this with everyone’s watches stopping when they reach Wolf Creek.
Greg McLean hasn’t managed to top this film yet (although I enjoy the bigger budget, more action heavy sequel, where Jarratt seems even more comfortable in the role), clearly everything came together in Wolf Creek. It’s only 90 minutes but I’ve spent 20 years processing the trauma - that takes skill.