Two English girls (Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi) hook up with an Australian hunk (Nathan Phillips) during their gap year and, after a night of rowdy partying, head off on a road trip across the Outback. When their car breaks down, however, they cross paths with a jolly local (John Jarratt), and soon find themselves wishing dearly that they hadn't accepted his offer to repair their vehicle...

Wolf Creek is a film of two distinct and very uneven halves. With an overlong first act that lies somewhere between a tourist advertisement for the Australian Outback and a mockumentary charting the travels of three loudmouthed youths, you might be forgiven for assuming it to be little more than a vacuous experiment with a high definition video camera by first-time writer and director Greg McLean. Of course, anyone who has encountered the film's marketing will know that it is, in fact, nothing of the sort: waiting beyond the plodding introductory scenes is an intense exploitation horror flick that evokes the same atmosphere of dread and hopelessness as Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. That's high praise indeed.


Of course, Hooper's film had a similarly slow setup, and it didn't come off any the worse for it. The difference is in the execution rather than the basic premise - both could be effectively summarised as "obnoxious kids head off into the middle of nowhere and run afoul of maniac(s)" - but whereas Hooper from the outset injected a much-needed dose of dread that steadily built up before coming to an explosive head, McLean seems to feel that an opening title card claiming that the film is based "on real events" is sufficient. That's not to say that he fails to include any tension at all in the first half, but the emphasis is definitely on the trio of backpackers, and let's just say that I personally would be loath to spend any time with such a troupe of superficial jackasses. Their drinking, partying, silly songs and bland love triangle are supposed to endear them to us, I'm sure, but part of me was just willing them to vanish into some deep crater, never to be seen again.

Then, just when I'm beginning to give up hope, the film does an abrupt U-turn and turns into a decent little no-holds-barred horror movie. Its saving grace can be summed up in two words: John Jarratt. Well, that's not entirely fair, but the veteran Australian soap opera actor certainly deserves the lion's share of the credit for making it watchable. His performance as serial killer Mick Taylor is so energetic, so nuanced, so twisted, and so god-damned funny that it almost makes up for the 30 minutes of tedium that have preceded his entrance. In fact, once Jarratt gets to work and McLean begins tightening the screws, the three doofuses who have fallen into Taylor's little trap begin to improve too. In particular, Cassandra Magrath, in the role of Liz Hunter, establishes herself as an effective horror heroine in what initially seems deceptively like the Marilyn Burns role in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. She proves to be feisty and resourceful, even if she does commit a couple of the head-slapping horror faux pas that are always infuriating, even if they are probably an accurate representation of how someone under such intense pressure would act.


With Jarratt chewing the scenery like nobody's business, McLean does a commendable job of not allowing him to overwhelm the film. He does so by way of his low-key photography, with the flat, oversaturated and decidedly video-like aesthetic of the first half giving way to a highly contrasted, desaturated look that constitutes an impressive and largely successful attempt to make digital video look like 16mm film. Clearly owing a great debt to documentary filmmakers, he takes a no holds barred approach to the violence and sadism perpetrated by Taylor, giving the events a level of honesty that would no doubt have been lost in a glossier, higher budget production.

How much you get out of Wolf Creek will depend on whether or not you are able to stomach the bloated first half, as well as your ability to empathise with the protagonists. With some judicious editing, this could have been a taut and effective exploitation flick. As it is, though, as good as the remaining 50 minutes are, the fact remains that in order to enjoy them, you must be content to slog through 30 minutes of tedium. McLean clearly knows how to deliver a horror movie; it's just a shame Wolf Creek spends so much time pussyfooting before it decides to actually be one.


DVD Presentation

Optimum have presented the film anamorphically in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, slightly matting the native HD 1.78:1 frame to preserve the original theatrical framing. All things considered, this is a pretty good transfer, especially in the later half of the film when the digital grading and artificial grain patterns are bumped up to make it look closer to film. The earlier scenes, which are largely not manipulated, show up the deficiencies of both the movie's digital nature and of the DVD to a much stronger degree, resulting in a somewhat flat and television-like look with some noticeable edge enhancement and the overall soft sheen that suggests unneccessary filtering. Compression artefacts are largely kept in check, although they are not entirely absent, with the first act once again getting the lion's share of the problems. Infuriatingly (and, in fact, par for the course these days) the theatrical trailer included on the disc, which has been subjected to less digital tampering than the film itself, looks noticeably better.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mix is very good, with deep bass and crystal clear dialogue. The rear channels are perhaps not used as much as they should in a film of this nature, but overall this is a solid track with few faults. A stereo option is also included for those without a surround setup.

In a completely unacceptable state of affairs, Optimum have neglected to provide subtitles of any kind.


Extras

Disc 1:

The first disc houses the aforementioned theatrical trailer and an audio commentary featuring writer/director Greg McLean, co-producer/executive producer Matt Hearn and actors Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi. It's not a bad track, but it's not exactly a brilliant one either. Although McLean does take some time to discuss various plot issues and changes that had to be made as a result of the low budget and weather conditions, the track is largely anecdotal, with the two actors doing little more than mentioning how much/little fun they had shooting particular scenes. Also - and this is just a personal niggle - one of the actors clears her throat so many times it eventually becomes annoying.


Disc 2:

The bulk of the bonus features are housed on the second disc, the most substantial being The Making of Wolf Creek, a fairly comprehensive 50-minute look behind the scenes. All the usual bases are covered, from the casting, to the shooting of the film itself, to the ways in which computer techniques such as digital grading were used to improve the final product. A judicious amount of behind the scenes footage is included, along with interviews with many of the key participants.

Three deleted scenes follow, ranging from brief (just over half a minute) to fairly lengthy (a three and a half minute scene involving Liz making an unpleasant discovery down a well). All three scenes have been digitally colour corrected and include music, although it's unclear whether this implies that they were cut from the film at the last moment or simply given extra special treatment for the DVD release.

A 21-minute interview with actor John Jarratt, who plays Mick Taylor, is also included. Jarratt goes into some amount of detail about how he was chosen for the role, how he prepared for it, and his philosophy on the character, although the format of the interview - it's essentially a single uninterrupted recording of Jarratt rambling on about whatever comes into his mind - is both a blessing and a curse.

The one-minute teaser trailer is also included on this disc, along with bonus trailers for two other Optimum releases, Switchblade Romance and Dead Man's Shoes. An "exclusive clip" is also included for Cry_Wolf, which seems to be a by-the-numbers American PG-13 rated horror movie - and a film that, due to the similarity in titles, is often accused with Wolf Creek. Needless to say, the two are obviously completely different beasts.


Overall

Optimum have provided a decent package for a film that, despite some teething problems, evolves into a highly effective throwback to the exploitation horror movies of the 70s. While Wolf Creek is not up to other recent examples of this resurgence, such as Switchblade Romance and The Devil's Rejects, it contains a killer second half, and the DVD should prove to be more than adequate in terms of both audio-visual quality and extras.

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