Wolf Creek

In a movie based very loosely on true events, three back-packers travel across the huge Australian outback searching for adventure. Stopping off at Wolf Creek's meteor crater, Ben (Phillips), Liz (Magrath) and Kristy (Morassi) find that their car battery has packed in. Just when they start to appreciate they're hopelessly stranded in the middle of nowhere, help arrives in the shape of kindly bushman, Mick Taylor (Jarrett), who promises to tune up the car at his abandoned mining site. Fair dinkum? Not really. Liz wakes up alone from a drug-induced sleep to find herself bound and gagged, and that Mick has gone all Deliverance on them. Not knowing where she is or how to get out of there, how can Liz help her friends escape from the nightmare? Written and directed by first-timer Mclean, Wolf Creek turns the stereotypical 'friendly bushman' stereotype on its head and fills the screen with Australia's barren outback, making the movie feel bigger than it actually is, which in turn adds to the hopelessness of the protagonists' situation. Taking its cue from Dogme and low-budget horror movies, Wolf Creek is a haunting experience, only hinting at what could happen to the characters. The acting has an ad-lib feel, which gives it a certain authenticity, so that when things take a turn for the worst you really feel for the characters' plight, while Jarratt gives a chilling performance as a relentless psychopath.