Review of Wolf Creek (2005) by Jon W — 12 May 2014

It's undeniably effective and creepy, but it is still an exercise in torture porn. I have to say that the effective parts were so just because of the natural human desire to not see seemingly good people be tortured and mutilated. Stabbed in the spine, one becomes a 'head on a stick.' Another almost escapes but is somehow located and killed in addition to an innocent bystander. Another has nails through their hands, and the movie graphically shows us what it would look like to pull your hand out of a nail. Everything before that is obligatory and rather uninteresting, truth be told. That the movie takes its time is admirable, but that doesn't change the fact that there are serious horror movies (The Exorcist among others) that I would much rather be watching than this. In the end, I felt depressed and kind of hopeless. Even "The Exorcist" left me feeling invigorated, as if good will always triumph over evil despite some sacrifices that must be made.

In the end, I was squirming and frowning during scenes because I would be upset at these things happening to most people, not because I cared deeply for the characters here. They're shallow and don't have much of interest to say. I was mostly just sad, watching people get mutilated in various ways. The villain was well-played, but his motivations are totally unclear.

Although movies typically try to be successful on their own terms, I couldn't help but compare this to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, another movie I didn't like for similar reasons (yeah, yeah, I know it's "a classic," but that doesn't mean I have to like it). In the end, as a horror movie I can't recommend it. The atmosphere is only kind of creepy due to dramatic irony when the trio spend a night with the killer (of course, they don't know he's a killer yet).

I kept wondering why I'm watching this. The women in particular are treated horribly, making me feel as if I was watching some misogynist fantasy from a particularly cruel person. Honestly, I was just very sad the entire movie. When it was over, I didn't reflect on the events positively. I wanted to vomit the movie out of my body. Given that I love horror films and have enjoyed gorier, there is a really terrible thing happening when I think of this as a slightly dialed-down Austrailian "Saw" or "Hostel." Of the three movies in which I compared this title, not one warrants a recomendation from me. Why? Because I find them to be dehumanizing exercises in misery for the sake of making us feel terrible. There is no joy here, and if you find the gore funny then an argument could be made that you could use psychological help. I guess when you aim your sights at "Texas Chainsaw," "Saw," and "Hostel," you're bound to end up in the same pile of blood and organs with flies all around. If the aim had been for a much better slasher like, say "Scream" or "Halloween," then we might have something. But this is a movie that wants you to feel bad and thank the filmmakers for giving a truly miserable experience with no redeeming qualities. My advice is to avoid this one and find any of the numerous horror films that actually have content. There is perhaps one laugh (I'm sure you can find a Youtube clip of it and save yourself 90 minutes of despair), but there are absolutely no redeeming qualities to this. Movies like this make me fear for what is happening to the horror viewing public. Are we supposed to get desensitized and root for the villain? I didn't care what the movie was trying to do. I really just hated it.