Wolf Creek - Archive

|April 14/2006|

I'll start with the entire "based on a true story" aspect of the film. If Ben is locked away in a room to himself, how could the other two girls' stories be told? How do we know the situations they face have any merit? Or is the whole "based on a true story" merely a fake tag in the vein of "Blair Witch Project"? I totally agree with buddy that the director(or, maybe my gripe is toward the editor)seems to shifts focus unevenly. I agree with buddy that intercutting would've worked ten times better continually giving us different perspectives. Ben gets to escape and into the forest he goes, but we follow the black haired girl for most of the way, then collapsing into the blonde haired girl's story immediately. There doesn't seem to be a balance between all three victims. I agree with buddy that the ending is abrupt and rather unsatisfying. That's why I questioned whether this was really based on a true story or a writer's way of predicting a possible true story that MIGHT occur in the quiet reaches of the Outback. I'll say this the film certainly didn't help the tourist trade any.
My major problems with the film concern the black haired girl who just makes ineptitude an artform. For instance, she shoots the bastard and has him laying on the ground. What does she do? She hits him a mere two times on the strong part of the back. Me? I'm gonna smash the bastard's head it with the butt of that rifle until I see his freakin' brains. But, it doesn't stop there. She has to head back to the bastard's place because she couldn't finish the job to start with and the bloke follows them to a cliff where she and the blonde push their vehicle over trying to trick the bastard into believing they were dead. He doesn't fall for it and now they have to hit the ground on foot as he surveys the damage. The black haired chick tells the blonde to stay put because she was slowing her down(I don't know about you, but the blonde should've punched her lights out for proposing such a thing)! So the black haired girl makes it back to the bloke's place, even finds a gun and loads it. What does she do? She decides to head over to this little shed like thing(anyone give me a reason why and I'll be more than thankful)and subsequently loses the gun! But, it doesn't stop there. Instead of finding the proper weapon and waiting to kill his butt, she decides to snoop through the private belongings of past victims(anyone keen enough should see this was simply a screenwriter's way of impacting the viewer through showing us all the innocents this bloke has killed along the way..an emotional parlor trick)! The time she wastes doing this could've been better served finding some kind of weapon and preparing for the bloke to come back. It still doesn't stop there. The black haired girl finds several cars in a parking lot. She goes into one of them and cranks it up. The bloke is right behind her and stabs her(reminding us of Myers first visual kill in "Halloween")through the back. Now, how could he guess which car she'd choose and how could he get in without her hearing?! I'm sorry I go on this way because I think this film really builds up the characters well. They are human, not just clones of past characters from slashers with little more depth that an egg shell. I love the photography and like how he operates using the beauty of Austrailia(and the wide scope of this country)as both a pleasure and horror. I think the aspect of "where do you run when you don't know where you are" definitely works in this film. It taps into my hidden fears(being far away from the existence of people and having no escape)and I responded to it. I think the film works on many levels. I still find it flawed(I hope I made myself clear on why I thought it was flawed above)and think it lacks tight enough editing. To be based on a true story, I find too many things quite ridiculous..such as the bloke's marksmanship shooting. I just don't think this guy could be this good with a rifle. I just don't see how anyone would leave a man on the floor without making sure he was dead.