Exploring the Australian outback is an exciting adventure for any young traveler. Friends Kristy (Kestie Morassi) and Liz (Cassandra Magrath) leave England for the trip of a lifetime, traipsing through the Australian wilderness. They meet up with Ben (Nathan Phillips), a witty and handsome young man who promises to take them to see Wolf Creek, the site of a meteorite crash in the middle of nowhere that attracts tourists.
That’s how the Australian film Wolf Creek (2005) begins. The viewers get to know the three characters quite well during the movie’s first half. Kristy is bubbly and hilarious, with a bright sense of humor and a fierce joy of life. Liz is more subdued and introspective, yet she is kind, caring, and adventurous. Ben is extremely silly, confident, and charming. He stands up for the women he travels with when creepy men at a gas station confront them. Ben and Liz even start falling for each other and seem excited about their potential relationship blooming once they reach Cairns, their final destination after Wolf Creek.
This well-established connection between the audience and the characters makes the extremely gruesome ending all the more disturbing. When the group reaches Wolf Creek, they enjoy their hike to the meteorite before heading back to the car. They’re frustrated to find the car is dead, and no one knows how to fix it. Luckily for them, a friendly man named Mick (John Jarratt) approaches soon after and tows their truck back to his campsite. But soon, the trio discovers that the stranger’s kindness was all a ruse.
Once the plot shifts into its horror themes, the pace picks up quick. At the same time, the audience is tempted with so many hopeful moments. Liz escapes her confines at first and is even able to shoot Mick after finding him torturing Kristy in another room. They both escape in his truck at first. But he follows them.
Throughout the rest of the film, hope is presented to the audience and snatched away within the blink of an eye. The utterly disturbing verbal threats and graphic violence Mick displays towards his victims are extremely memorable. I won’t give too much away, because you need to see it for yourself.
Another intriguing element of this movie is that it’s presumably based on actual events. The film makes it seem like Kristy, Liz, Ben, and Mick were all real people. But this is false. The creator of Wolf Creek, Greg McLean, actually based his film on the crimes of two different men: Ivan Milat and Bradly John Murdoch. These two men committed murders in the outback of Australia in the 1990s and early 2000s.
I’m not a huge fan of manipulating true tragic stories into gory movies made purely for our entertainment. However, I found myself deeply invested in the film. The storytelling is fantastic. It’s filled with suspense, intrigue, and compelling characters. The buildup to the horrors at the film’s end is incredibly well done. All in all, I give this movie a 3 out of 5. It gains points for excellent storytelling but loses points for sensationalizing real tragedy.