Anybody see "Wolf Creek"? (Potential spoilers, I guess)

[Pale Blue Dot]

My fiancee is at school tonight, so I decided to have a gore-fest tonight. I started with "Wolf Creek", an Australian entry in the "backwoods hick who kills teenagers" genre that's been so popular lately. I thought that it was quite suspenseful, and reasonably surprising given the limits of this type of film. It even remembered an important element of horror/suspense films that most of them forget: Make the characters likable, so we care what happens to them.

I have one major quibble, however, and I wanted to get your take on this (and what follows will be SPOILERS): It's based on a true story, but the only survivor (in the film and in real life) was not a witness to everything that happened to the other 2 victims. That means that the gruesome fates met by the girls sprung completely from the imagination of the writer/director. That makes it feel very exploitive, and I feel kind of dirty for being impressed by the filmmaking.

It was an well-done horror film, but I feel like I need to bathe. And I don't think I can handle the other film on my gore double-bill tonight ("Hostel").

Anyone else see "wolf Creek"? What was your opinion?

[bikebloke]

1. Saw it.

After watching it, I decided to look up the real events. Apparently, the film is based on two or three real backpacker murders woven together. The "Dundee" bloke was based on a real serial killer operating in New South Wales. When I saw the dates, I realized that I was bike trekking there at the same time. Crikey, I'm glad I didn't decide to make an autostop trip.

I don't go for slasher flicks, and Wolf Creek was the first in many years. But it was good. I think they used some artistic license. They had to. The alternative would be a speculative documentary.

On Aussie films, try "Little Fish" with Cate Blanchet.

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. I'll try "Little Fish".

I like Cate Blanchet. Who doesn't?

[Heddi]

3. Thought Wolf Creek was MUCH better than Hostel

Saw WC first and could not sleep AT ALL that night.

Saw Hostel the next night and thought it was absolutely one of the most boring and worthless films I've ever seen. Gore does NOT equal scary. Sure, there was gore (totally fakey gore, might I add) but I felt it was of no value and was only there for shock,and to make up for the lack of plot and substinance of the rest of the movie.

In fact, i had FORGOTTEN I had even WATCHED Hostel about 45 minutes after it was over. Swear to God.

I think that the depictions of what happened to the females was based on the idea of what COULD have happened to them based on mick's campfire stories of the wonderful way he treated animals that he hunted in teh outback.

Also, the story isn't so much "Based on a true story" but rather "inspired by true events". The serial killer shown was based loosely on I think 3 serial killers in the outback at the time. one was Ivan Milat and you can read about him here:

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/milat/discovery_1.html

He killed several backpackers/hitchikkers in the outback in the 90's, and the police bungled the case (like it said at the end of Wolf Creek). Remember the scene about "Head on a stick"? One of the girls that ivan killed was stabbed so severely that her spine was severed, and that's where the writers got that idea from (from what I've read).

I thought it was a wellmade movie. Even though the females were brutalized, tortured, and killed, I never felt like they were the "typical helpless females" we so often see in HOrror movies.

Also, unlike typical "horror" movies, these were good kids, for all intents and purposes. There was no "morality play" here, where they were killed during sex/sex acts (Think Friday 13th). They were literally at the wrong place at the wrong time. Which made it all that more gut-wrenching to see them all in that situation.

Iif you want more detailed analysis of the movie, I suggest you check out the IMDB pageon Wolf Creek and read the reader comments (you may have to sign up, but they don't spam you or anything). Very detailed analysis of the film, I have to say, and i've learned to like the movie even more after reading what others have written about it.

I just saw it last Monday and already I want to see it again. I thought it was an excellent movie.