Australian filmmaker, Greg McLean's 2005 film, Wolf Creek (Review), offers McLean an opportunity to do it all....write, produce and direct. Starring in the film are; John Jarrat (Mick Taylor), Cassandra Magrath (Liz Hunter), Kestie Morassi (Kristy Earl) and Nathan Phillips (Ben Mitchell).

Two British women, Liz (Cassandra Magrath) and Kristy (Kestie Morassi) are on holiday in Australia and befriend a local, Ben (Nathan Phillips). As Liz and Ben are kind of sweet on each other, the three decide to pool their cash, purchase a vehicle and take a road trip into the outback to Wolf Creek Crater Park. After hiking to the crater and exploring a bit of the surrounding area, they head back to their vehicle. Once in the vehicle, they find it won't start and anything they try to rectify the problem is useless. Just when they resign themselves to the fact that they may be spending the night in the vehicle, a large truck drives up and local, Mick Taylor (John Jarrat) offers to repair the vehicle, but he'll have to tow it back to his place to do the repairs. Thinking they've lucked out with the kindness of this stranger, they agree to be towed back. All seems well at first, but then as the trio gets to know Mick a little better, they suddenly realize that you can't always trust the kindness of strangers.

Wolf Creek is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and while the film was shot on digital video, the picture looks outstanding. Audio options include English and French (Dolby Digital 5.1) with optional subtitles in English and Spanish. The bonus features include:

-Commentary Track with Writer/Director Greg McLean, Executive Producer Matt Hearn and Actors Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi.

I recall seeing the previews for this film and thinking it might hold some promise, but I never caught it at the theatre and never spoke to anyone who saw the film, so going into this viewing, I had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. The film takes a bit of time in the beginning to flesh out the characters a bit and while that bit of the film might bog down a bit, once the action begins, it's balls-to-the-wall horror. There's plenty of gore with some seriously unnerving scenes. It would be easy to make a film filled with gore and sadistic scenes, but I think the first half of the film where we get to know the characters makes for a much better film. You begin to feel for the characters and in that, you feel a certain sense of horror and fear for what they're going through. I like that in a horror film.....when there's at least one character to feel something for, it makes for a better film in my opinion. The film has an almost Texas Chainsaw Massacre look and feel to it at times, but certainly isn't a copy-cat effort. With films like, The Hills Have Eyes and Wolf Creek, I'm thinking twice about any road trips or accepting help from any strangers! Wolf Creek offered much more than I could have expected and it's definitely a film worth checking out. It should be noted that there are two versions available, a rated and an unrated version of the film.....this review is for the unrated version.

Buy Wolf Creek on DVD at Amazon.com