A trio of youngsters - Ben (Nathan Phillips), Liz (Cassandra Magrath)
and Kristy (Kestie Morassi) - make a daytrip to Wolf Creek, the biggst
crater in all of Australia, but when they want to go back, their car won't
start.
So here they are, in the middle of nowhere, with none of their mobiles
working, and nobody might pass by for days. Fortunately though that old
Mick (John Jarrat) stops by and offers his help ... Fortunately indeed, or
so our youngsters think.
Soon enough, Liz finds herself all tied up, and once she has freed
herself and takes a peek in the next room, she finds Mick torturing
Kristy. Only by blowing up her own car can Liz divert Mick's attention
long enough for her to free Kristy, then the girls somehow even make a getaway ... but
rather stupidly, they crash the car they get away with on purpose to fake
an accident and make him think they are dead ... which is pretty much
where the film has lost me. Now the girls, with Kristy badly hurt, have to
make their way back to Mick's place on foot to steal another car, and
while Liz is checking out which is the best car - Mick has loads of cars
from his former victims -, Mick catches up with her and brutally cuts her
spine.
Meanwhile, Kristy has made it to the street on foot (a car would really
have helped here), and even manages to stop another car ... but soon
enough, Mick kills that car's driver, and after a short car chase, he
murders Kristy as well.
At this point, Ben, who has spent his time crucified in Mick's hut,
wakes up, manages to free his arms from the nails which have held him at
the cross and makes a clean getaway ... only to be later tried for the
murder of the two girls.
Eventually, a title card tells us, Ben was acquitted, while neither the
bodies of the two girls nor serial killer Mick were ever found.
In case you wondered, yes, this film is more than a little reminiscent
of Tobe Hooper's Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, but without that movie's rawness, roughness or
panache. Wolf Creek is just a mix of postcard perfect images,
uninspired violence and a series of leaps in logic and reason, and at one
and a half hours it's way too long for its feeble storyline, which is
completely devoid of any plottwists.
Pretty boring, actually.
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