Day 27 Wolf Creek and Wolf Creek 2

When you want to travel and cut loose, but want a little taste of adventure. NEVER TREK THROUGH AUSTRALIA!!!

Seriously! It is an island of death! You can walk around and point out anything you see and say “Yeah, that’ll kill yeah. That? Oooh yeah, it’ll kill ya too. That for sure will kill ya. Oh that cute cuddly thing? Bet your ass it’ll kill ya”

This land also had a well documented war against Emu’s. It’s documented. They called it The Great Emu War.

Fucking Emu’s!!!

So of course the place would have a spot where cellphones don’t work and psychos roam. Nothing against Australians. Love them. But your country is like a living Harry Potter book of deadly monsters and where to find them.

But this movie isn’t about that thankfully. It is however a harsh fun, terrifying story about running into the wrong kind of person, in the worst place to do so.

Much like Evil Dead, and I’d go as far as even saying The Nightmare on Elm Street series, it’s one of the few movies to have not one a successful sequel, but a pretty good show based off it as well. Yes I consider the show Freddy’s Nightmares a good show.

I remember when this movie came out and they advertised it being based on a true story. As was the style back them. Which is semi is. Just like most films, not entirely. As far as I remember it’s based off a few people, one of whom was a man who spent 20 years in prison for killing seven people but never confessing.

Still pretty damn spooky!

So lets dig into the outback of death and learn why, again. If you feel like wondering Australia. Remember everything can and will likely want to kill you.

WOLF CREEK

Our movie follows the documented travel of three friends. Two ladies and a friendly guy. A guy whom one of the girls wishes to pair off with, and her best friend is all four trying to see that happen. They’re a good group and you buy their friendship. They manage a rare feat of being young and not annoying as hell. Something American movies have yet to perfect.

So the group are headed to Wolf’s Creek Crater. A straight up 3 hour hike to a large crater impact from a meteor. The group plans on camping, though camping isn’t really allowed or endorsed. At all. But I mean, if you want to wonder off and lose yourself in an area void of any signs of human life. It’ll do ya.

And it is a rather impressive sight honestly. We saw a crater on one of our family trips through Utah and Arizona and it was definitely memorable. But we also weren’t in a place where everything would kill us. Or someone was stalking us.

Fortunately for the group, Manly man kisses giggly girl and the two are happy to have that awkward moment over with as they pair up for a life holding hands and romancing.

Once the group has enjoyed their stop and 6 hour hike to and from. They return to their car to find for some reason, their car won’t start. Their watches even had stopped working. Nothing electrical works in fact. Naturally one can assume this means nothing but good things. But to the groups credit. Manly Man, giggly girl and friend take it well. No one is cussing each other out, and aside ome a little cussing. They all seem pretty chill.

Honestly I enjoy thunderstorms and lightning, so it’s a nice little rest.

Luckily the group doesn’t have to worry too much as a nice man happens to come across their dead car. We’ll call him Mr Outback Steakhouse.

So Outback Steakhouse comes over to say hello and see if they all need help. He’s arrived in a good sized truck with booming headlights and tow equipment.  He decides to take a look at the car for them and try to jumpstart it. During that time we learn the two girls are visiting from Britain, and Manly Man is their aussie guide. Which amuses him greatly.

After some work on the car he finds out its deader than dead and it needs a part he has back at his camp site. He offers them the choice of taking a ride to the camp site to pickup the coil they need, or stick around and wait till morning when more people will be buy to help them. So the group debate their choices and Manly man sticks his butt out for them asking if he’d mind actually towing them to town versus his camp site. Well Outback Steakhouse informs them he just can’t do it because he’s heading south, not north. After debating their options for a minute. It’s decided. They’ll head off with Mr. Outback Steakhouse to his camp site to replace the coil and head back themselves in the morning.

So after many hours of driving the group arrive at his camp site, an old abandoned mining camp. Complete with storage buildings and equipment. Nestled out in the deep away from everything.

Of course it’s going to go badly.

But they still manage to enjoy themselves a bit before then. Sharing drinks and a few laughs, even a bad Crocodile Dundee quote. But we do get some nice background into Outback Steakhouse. We learn he used to be a ‘shooter’ shooting wild animal off the property he worked, killing with his rifle and a knife. All good survival skills naturally, and a haunting story to be told as the girls don’t seem to care for his stories about killing animals. Mr. Outback Steakhouse sets to work on the car as the group soon find themselves passing out. Unaware what they’d been drinking was heavily drugged.

Well, they realize it, just much much later on when they wake up in the morning and Giggly girl discovers she’s been gagged and tied up inside a building with her shoes removed. She stays inside the shed until night fall, Still to weak to move during the day. But once the night settles in she’s off and sneaking around like a rabbit on a fast track to freedom. Exploring the camp in as quiet a trip as she can make. Discovering in the process that their cars engine has been dismantled and stripped for parts. She also discovers a bloody pair of pants on the ground and her shoes. Quickly reclaiming them.

Just as she’s about to continue her exploration and search for her friends. She hears her bestie begin crying out. Seeing her through cracks in metal walls as she appears to be swinging around chained and restrained. She also discovers Mr Outbacks room of weapons. Many calibers, and many different lethal weapons. She finally finds her friend and  sees her wearing a blood stained shirt and nothing else. But we’ve no idea who’s blood it is on her. Is it her own, Mr Manly Man’s? We don’t know. All we know is he’s explaining to her and demonstrating how rifles work, shooting at her.

He even calmly explains to her that even though he’s raped her(apparently he did) he always uses rubbers as he has no idea where these girls have been before he got to them. He’s all kinds of messed up and enjoying himself.

Luckily giggly girl is not going to stand for this. She is going to help her friend! She starts a fire and explodes a lantern to distract him from chopping up her friend and raping her. Which she almost succeeds in, until he returns and begins telling Bestie all about what he’s done to other girls. In fact he has one  half carved up hanging from his wall.

When he decides it’s time to get down to business. Giggly girl kicks into gear. Grabbing his rifle and taking a shot off at him. Unfortunately it grazes his cheek. BUT fortunately for all of us. She took the pants she found earlier and gives them to her bestie.

The duo pair up and make for his truck, after a game of find the keys. They manage to get the truck going.  Do they make a go at escaping this hell hole and getting away from him? No. They try running him over and failing horribly. THEN they actually begin driving off for freedom. However he’s still alive, and very unhappy with them. He soon takes off in another car and it becomes a game of outback hide and seek. Which would work a lot better if the girls managed to turn the lights off on the truck and actually attempted to hide themselves. Instead of driving the car to a cliff. Dumping the car OVER the cliff, and attempting to fake their deaths. Managing mostly in destroying his property.

Which honestly from Youtube videos I’ve seen ,all they did was create a days project for him to dig his truck up later and fix it. Australians are amazing at this apparently and it’s a fun activity for a day.

I would give these girls credit for their attempted track for the guy. If not for the fact they can’t seem to whisper, only managing to communicate through shouting, out in the open where this killer is with them. We hope they survive, but we understand if they don’t.

So Giggly girl is off and searching the abandoned mining town. Discovering a plethora of porn, weapons and ammo. Does she grab any of the weapons and stock up? Actually yes. She grabs .357 and loads up the cylinder and her pockets. She seems to actually have it somewhat together. Good for her.

Meanwhile in her searching. We discover the extent to how long Mr Outback Steakhouse has been operating. She discovers a mine shaft with decaying bodies, a garage with multiple cars, peoples belongings, It’s pretty extensive and creepy. However good on him for keeping things sorted and clean. However, she derails her smart search when she decides “Sure I could look for a car to take off in and save my friend who is patiently waiting outside for me. But I think I’ll stay here and watch a few home movies people recorded before running into him first.

Eventually she does FIND a car! She even FINALLY starts it. However Mr Outback is waiting for her there and giggles at giggly girl. Before stabbing her in the kidney. She drops the gun crawls out and holds up a survival knife to him. Which is funny only in that he gets to actually properly USE the “That’s not a knife, THIS is a knife” remark, and promptly cuts off a few fingers.

As if that’s not enough? He demonstrates to her a little move he learned on how to interrogate someone without killing them he calls ‘Head on a stick’ I will leave it for you to discover what that means. It’s not exactly pretty. So he begins questioning her on where to find her bestie. But will she give that up or not?! WHO KNOWS!

Well bestie got tired of waiting so she took off herself. Finding a road for one so, good on her there. Secondly she finds a man passing by ready to help her! Even better luck!

Of course you know what I’m going to say. This is a relentless horror film and we’re quickly learning the rate of survival seems pretty damn low. The man she finds ends up with a bullet through the head. She however is having none of this. Bestie has been through a hell of a lot so she speeds off in the car going top speed while Mr. Outback is ready to remind her Mad Max wasn’t just Australian made. It’s  a way of life. So a high speed duel beginsbetween the two. Which sends our villain swerving. But remember. He has guns of plenty, and is a hell of a shot. So she doesn’t get far. He even calmly waits for her to crawl out of her car. Waits a few extra moments, then shoots her. It’s a pretty cold, and albeit realistic scene. He’s not taking any chances this time either, walking up to her and finishing her off with one last shot.

We get an update from Mr Manly Man. He’s still in it to win it! He also seems to be doing pretty fair for a guy left down a mine shaft drooling blood and seeming half way between death and passing out. It seems he was left crucified in this mineshaft, beside an actual Jesus on a cross, and a guard dog. Finally deeling he can move and not wanting to die like this. He begins struggling for freedom. Which, somehow? He manages! Finding himself still on the compound, no one insight. No idea where his friends are or what happened to them. He does the somehow safest thing for him compared to dying out there, But also the most deadliest thing. He takes off roaming blindly in hopes of being found.

Which he thankfully is. He’s picked up on the road side NOT by Mr Outback Steakhouse. But a nice couple. He’s flown to a hospital, questioned by authorities and, the film ends there. With text informing us that police were unable to locate any evidence that the two girls were ever there let alone were killed. Ben was considered an unreliable witness, but eventually was cleared of all suspicion, and meanwhile Mr. Outback Steakhouse is still at large. As we soon shall discover in the sequel!!

Wolf Creek 2

This is another claiming to be based on a true life event. Which this one actually is. Just not off one killer, but two notorious serial killers. The filmmakers just thought why not turn it into a further adventures of Mr. Outback Steakhouse film. Which good for us they did.

This time around. We get to follow Mr. Outback Steakhouse from the start. We see him get pulled over by two policemen who decide to hassle him to kill some boredom. This goes exactly how you’d expect it as he shoots the driver and sends the car crashing off the road, whistling a happy tune as he sets the car on fire.

It’s also a good time to note the gore in this one is off the chain upgraded compared to the more reserved part one. He blue half the cops head off with one shot and we are not spared a moment of it. They were so proud of the effect they had to show it to us up close..

And we are off to a promising start!

Speaking of. We get our first few shots of partying couples, hitchhikers looking for adventure across Australia. It’s a nice little montage and good start for things to begin going wrong. This nice german couple go camping and as I said hitchhiking along a dead road. They do encounter Mr Outback Steakhouse. However, he only messes with the couple. Seeming to stop and wait to pick them up. But then taking off. Lucky for them right?

They manage a friendly ride, and an even friendlier naked swim in a nearby lake. It’s a bit funny in a cheese way. Because as romantic as they get and talk. We all know what’s going to happen soon enough with them. Which thankfully happens soon after riding in a car with goats to Wolf Creek. Their next tourist destination.

Which again, it’s a beautiful thing to see, and this time with a bigger budget we get some very impressive views indeed.

Well as they are hitchhikers they have no need to worry about their car suddenly not working, as they have their gear with them and try waiting for a car to pick them up. Ah the life of a gypsy. So the couple setup camp and we are ready. MORE than ready for the bad stuff to happen.

So while making his nightly rounds around his familiar stomping grounds of wolf Creek. Mr. Outback Steakhouse discovers the couple and introduces himself, as charmingly as he can manage. From calling them krauts, and hailing them with a raised hand. He’s a special kind of murderous racist having fun.

Seriously the guy is great when he’s having fun. As well as creepy as sin.

Well the couple don’t care much for his help he offers, so he tosses the man afainst his truck, calls him a nazi and repeats his go-to ‘Head on a Stick’. He politely restrains the girlfriend and informs her how he was planning on killing them back at his place. But the boyfriend being a douche forced him to have to kill them both here and now.

He can’t help but try and take the time to ask her why tourist think to come out and spend their time in austrailia bugging the natives. Which doesn’t last long as he remembers, hey, she’s a woman, I like to rape women!. But thankfully German boyfriend is hard to put down and goes to save her. Which he mostly manages, until he doesn’t. Ending up being beheaded. Severely and rightfully traumatizing her. It’s seriously pretty convincing as the look of utter terror on her face is pretty intense.

Unfortunately he doesn’t kill her. Instead promising her a few warm months together, But first he has to dissect her boyfriend. Which you again. Get to witness in full detail. Right down to his impressive junk. Which we not only see is impressive. But he has to stop what he’s doing to inform us how lucky he was to have that.

While Mr. Outback Steakhouse is impressed with long dong German Schlong, the girlfriend manages to escape. I think this is a good point to mention, this is only 30 minutes into the movie and we’ve already had 3 murders. With the promise of a 4th to come. Until!! She stumbles on a man driving a jeep and picks her up.

This man is now our new hero/victim of the film.

No sooner doe she pick her up, are we back on the road and on for a big chase.

Mr. Outback is on a roll and he’s not wanting to stop yet, not with this record!

So naturally their luck runs out. Which is sad for German girl as she actually did want to live and could’ve. But this is Australia! No one’s getting out alive!

He takes aim to kill the driver of the jeep, but ends up blowing off the face of poor German girl. Leaving us now with Mr Hot wheels.

Seriously his jeep is so damn small it could pass for a hot wheels toy.

So Mr. Hotwheels takes off from the assault of Mr. Outback Steakhouse, and discovers he is as lost as lost can be. Which does not bode well for anyone out in the fields of nowhere. But he’s a thoughtful guy. He takes the time in his stop to use his own sleeping bag and wrap up German girl inside it. Leaving her body for the wild life of Australia, or most likely the authorities should they end up lost as well.

But we can’t have a movie match up against the original if all we have is an hour of driving around wondering! This isn’t Lord of the Rings Australian edition!

Well when all seems lost and Mr. Outback discovers this movie might end up a road trip special. He shows up in a super powerful 18 wheeler, ready to recreate the Spielberg classic DUEL. Naturally Hotwheels car is no match and we are quickly back on track with our murderer and his crazy idea of how to spend your day in the outback.

It does however afford us a rather hysterical scene for the twisted of us. As the two are chasing each other slamming vehicles. Mr. Outback decides he could do with some music. SO he turns on what the truck driver was listening to and, it’s ‘In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle’ Which plays as, wait for it. We see a field of CGI kangaroo hop off onto the road as Hotwheels tries to avoid hitting them, and Mr. Outback Steakhouse hits every one of them he can. Until the jeep ends up run off the road and manages to survive! He grabs some water, cheers for his own survival and. We see a hell of a play from Mr. Outback as he, well. Sends the 18 wheeler at full speed down a mountain side to ram into the jeep. SOMEHOW, Mr Hotwheels survives! Lucky bastard. Which seems to genuinely impress his stalking killer.

Well luckily it doesn’t take long before he’s discovered and taken into a nice families home. Who agree to take him into town. But only once he has eaten. They seem rather oddly at peace with not rushing out to get him to safety. Until he’s eaten. Honestly it all looks like a hell of a setup for a possible Sawyer family home like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Well he questions his saviors. Especially when the old lady informs him she made soup especially for him. It has to be poisoned right? Well we will just never know, as Mr. Outback makes his way to the families house and shoots both the husband and wife dead. Maybe they were cannibals! Sexual Deviants?  Murderers? They’re dead now so guess it’s okay to continue our movie.

Which actually no joke sort of looks like it could be an Australian version of Lord of the Rings as Mr. Outback takes off chasing our hero on horseback. I gotta say I give this guy a lot of credit. He’s proven the most durable and stamina filled character thus far against Mr. Outback Steakhouse. Which is not to his benefit as he ends up found, whipped, beaten and captured.

But now that he has him. He’s not rushing to kill him. He actually wants to talk to him. So he ask him why he’s here. But not before insulting him. Calling him a Pommy.

Which prompts Hotwheels to. Well. Begin sharing rhymes, drinking songs, and dirty limericks. Which for the moment stops Mr. Outback Steakhouse from cutting out his tongue and joining in. Figuring Hotwheels went crazy, which interest him.

Prompting him to share a drink with Hotwheels, and beginning a rather terrifying game of bar songs, and trivia, or as Outback Steakhouse calls it. Aussie Trivia.

It’s not expected but genuinely terrifying when he tells him the stakes. 10 questions, 10 fingers. For every wrong answer, he gets to grind off a finger. With a huge grinding saw.

To his credit he was doing pretty well. In fact he answered 3 question correct. But Mr. Outback Steakhouse doesn’t like this so he grinds off a finger because he doesn’t like him being so smart.

It’s becoming a bit clearer now that he’s going to change the rules as he sees fit. BUT he does promise if he can answer just one more quick question. He’ll get them both a drink, and let him go. He just has to tell him who the greatest cricket player in Australia is. Which he tries his best but fails. Losing yet another finger. This time on his other hand.

As Mr. Outback leaves to get them a drink and continue his torturing , He takes this moment to grab a hammer and fight for his freedom. Especially when Mr. Outback pulls out a dress he plans on him wearing for him when he keeps him in his torture cave. Which lets face it. When your choices are being torn apart after being put in a dress and made to fill in for a dead girl you tried to save, or being carved up while trying to escape. Well it might be a hard choice to make. But he makes it and takes off running.

Leading him down a hall of horrors as we see a large number of chained men and women stripped down to their under clothes, in various states of decay and starvation. One even begins screaming as he passes by. Not to be seen as a psycho, he shouts out to Mr. Hotwheels how all the bodies down there deserved it. They were all ruining his country and he’s simply doing his part to keep their country beautiful.

We also learn that Mr. Outback loves dogs! As he sicks two of them on Mr. Hotwheels. Sadly they aren’t successful. And one doggo doesn’t make it either. Which is the sad part. I know.

But just when all seems lost, and that he will meet his end? Mr. Hotwheels finds himself knocked out, waking up, in of all places. The middle of a street somewhere. In his boxers, covered in blood. Short two fingers and holding a note which stated a fact that Mr. Outback Steakhouse wanted him to be aware of was all that mattered. “Loser”

I mean he DID lose a game of trivia to him, proving Australias dominance further. And thus ending our movie.

The second movie tipped its balance scale toward comedy and it paid off big time. The dark humor was great. More of the killer was even better. But the gore was the icing on the cake for this one. They spared no expense and we got a good dose of further background into the extent of his madness. John Jarratt is a scary S.O.B. and I love the guy. I haven’t checked out the show but I’ve heard good things, so I’ll give it a go eventually. I remember renting both of these movies when they came out and being surprised when I heard there was a sequel that didn’t see Theatrical release here. But then again we don’t love horror as much as we used to. It’s a genre that comes and goes as it pleases over here.

But yes the sequel leans on and shares a beer with the original. Nothing felt forced and if anything it just gave us a hell of a lot more weirdness. Seriously that elderly couple just. Man. Australia is a weird place. But seems fun. Aside everything being deadly.

Is it as suspenseful as the first one? Yes but in different ways. Going from a group trying to survive to one man doing so is a big change up. But his constant survival is a good play for a man setup as a shooter and hunter. The movie though it amped up the kills and gore decided to give a clever ending, vs the will they won’t they of the first and the deeply grim cold nature behind the kills. It doesn’t feel like a cop out, or cheapened. It works for the tone of the film and stands a solid sequel.

Give them both a watch and I promise you won’t be disappointed.