A Friendly Film This is Not! (Wolf Creek (DVD))

Name: katygriff

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Product:	Wolf Creek (DVD)
Date:	31/01/06 (228 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Scary Which is More Than I Can Say for Most Films.

Disadvantages: No Character Development.

Ok so everybody knows by now that I am a big horror fan so of course it will come as no surprise that I sat down and watched the latest horror film Wolf Creek last night. I had read that this film was based on a true story and so was intrigued to watch it due to that fact but I soon came to realize that I think this film may have been overdone a little bit but hey I have still given it four stars and this is why.

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The Film:

The film opens up on beautiful Australia where we can see the sun shining and the bright blue seas look so tempting that you just wish you could jump into the TV and go there right now. The scenes are happy and honestly make you jealous. The girls and guys are tanned and you actually want to be friends with these people because they having a great time, partying, drinking, sunbathing and renting a car which looks like a banger but due to the very cheap price, they love it and it will do them for their travelling.

About five minutes into the film, it begins to focus specifically on three people, two girls and a guy who are travelling companions. The two girls are British and named Kristy and Liz, and the guy is called Ben and is Australian and immediately you find out that during the film there may be a romantic link between two of them. The first fifteen minutes or so focuses on the great time they are having and in every scene there are a lot of people and the camera angles show nothing but bright lights and gorgeous scenery and above all lots of colours. As you know though this is a horror film and everything cannot last this way.

The friends decide to take a road trip up to Wolf Creek where a meteorite created a crater, so they pack their hiking backpacks and food into the car and travel up to the crater. Along the way they stop off in some lets just say dire places where they meet some quite annoying locals but this doesn’t destroy their mood. Even when they get to the crater site and see that it is a three hour hike this does not dampen their spirits and they enjoy their time there.

Then the horror starts and they find themselves in a situation that nobody would want to be in. By this time in the film the weather has changed for the worse so instead of sunny scenes and bright colours we now have damp greys and clouds. Also you will notice that because they are in the outback there are very long straight roads and very little in the way of civilization. I will not tell you much more as I will keep what happens as a surprise for people who have not seen it.

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Things to know:

Certificate – 18
Price - £12.99
Runtime –
1 Disc DVD

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My Verdict:

The film starts with some very dramatic and shocking statistics, it states to us that around 30000 people go missing in the Australian outback every year and around 3000 of them are never found. This alone made me never want to go backpacking there but at least the film had me hooked from the start. I couldn’t help but think as I watched the beginning of the film that I don’t want it to be a horror movie and I actually would have liked to have seen some more sites of Australia and watch more about how the character relationships develop.

The actual story of this film is really good and the fact that it is based on real events only heightens the atmosphere. We all hear about backpackers in Australia being killed in the news and the movie gets across not just how much it happens but also how easy it happens. As they were traveling over the outback we couldn’t stop commenting on how empty and desserted it looked so it would be pretty easy to get lost or go missing and nobody to ever find you. The script writers have done well though but there is one complaint I would like to make and that is about the characters.

Character development is always something I love in films and this one did not have much at all. In fact next to none! Although you didn’t want any harm to come to the characters I couldn’t help but think well I know nothing about these people at all so I don’t really care. Also one thing that really annoyed me and my sister is character names as we didn’t even know what all of the main characters were called until about an hour through the movie which is pretty bad. The acting however is brilliant from everybody involved so no complaints there.

The scenery in this movie is stunning and the way the movie has been shot is very clever with the happy bits with lots of colours and sunny weather and then all dark and dreary for the rest. Even though me and my sister were saying to each other that we would never want to travel in the Australian outback, we had to admit that we could see why people do.

What I will say about this movie is that there is enough to keep you watching and it held mine and my sister’s attention throughout even when we didn’t really want to watch what was going on. One thing I did like is that it did not rely on special effects or a lot of gore to create the tension and atmosphere so you do all of that in your head.

This movie is a good horror film and to be honest one of the scarier ones I have seen for a while because it is based on true events and I did not like the fact that this sort of thing could happen to anybody. There is not a load of gore in this so people who just like watching films with loads of blood and guts should go watch something else but if you want to watch a decent horror then you couldn’t do much better than this. It has not got the whole Hollywood effect with the pretty girls and the over the top acting and when people get stabbed ten times and they keep on fighting so in that respect this film was true to real life. I was scared enough that I got my dog and sister to come and stay in my room with me for the night so I was not on my own. Pathetic yes I know.

In conclusion I am going to give this movie four stars because I did think for a horror movie it was pretty good but if I were you I would not go into this movie thinking you are going to watch something that is totally believable and based 100% on real events because I will tell you that about 70% of this movie is not real and I will not tell you why as it will ruin it for those who have yet to see it but if you want to email me then I will tell you why.

All in all though a good horror flick and this is my first VHS review so let me know if I have forgotten anything.

Thanks for reading.

xxx

Summary: Worth Watching.