Monday, July 7, 2014

Wolf Creek 2 [Australia, 2014]


Nine Things about the Movie Wolf Creek 2

1. Made eight years after the first “Wolf Creek”, this movie continues the adventures of Mick Taylor, the awkwardly charming but brutal serial killer with a nerve-grating chuckle.

2. Like the first movie, this is “inspired by true events”, which means it was partly inspired by two famous Australian killers. But this story never happened.

3. There is a pretty obvious anti-tourist element in the plot of this movie. I might take “visit Australia” off of my bucket list.

4. The first movie was about two European backpackers that are stalked by a killer in the outback. The sequel is about two European backpackers that are stalked by a killer in the outback.

5. Director Greg McLean broke some rules of horror films in the first movie. He also breaks some rules of horror sequels in this movie. So despite having the almost exact same setup, this movie goes in a wildly different direction than the first. It does a pretty good job of subverting expectations and surprising you, at least for awhile.

6. The first half of the movie seems determined to be more violent than the first one. It’s pretty extreme. But it runs out of creative steam about halfway through, and then settles down into your more traditional “terrorize the captive” sequences.

7. Like the first film, the acting is better than you usually find in these kinds of movies. Ryan Corr is really good as the British surfer unwillingly brought into the drama. And John Jarratt guarantees that the Mick Taylor character joins the hall of fame of truly evil villains.

8. There is a very dark and macabre sense of humor to the movie, which lends a somewhat surreal quality to the film. A lot of it comes from Mick Taylor muttering to himself, so unless you are an expert at understanding Australian accents and slang, make sure you have the subtitles on.

9. This isn’t better than the first movie, but it’s not really worse, either. There are some very memorable scenes here. If you are a fan of the first film, you’ll like this one, too. And if you weren’t a fan of the first one, well, this won’t change your mind.


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