Wolf Creek 2 is the sequel to the highly regarded Wolf Creek (2005) and is both written and directed by the the same writer and director of the first film Greg McLean. The film sees John Jarratt return to his role as Mick Taylor and also stars Ryan Corr as Paul Hammersmith, Shannon Ashlynn as Katarina Schmidt and Phillipe Klaus as Rutger Enqvist.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KguuqivQL7I[/youtube]
This film sees the return of the horrifying Mick Taylor played (John Jarratt) who once again prey’s on the tourists who are just trying to visit Wolf Creek and witness all that there is in the Australian outback. The unsuspecting foreign tourists in this film consist of Rutger, Katarina and Paul who are all Mick Taylor’s prey Wolf Creek 2.
I won’t go much more into the plot because it’s very easy to spoil this movie by detailing too much, like many horror films the plot is thin (not a bad thing). If you’ve seen Wolf Creek (2005) you’ll know what to expect but if you haven’t seen the original you’ll be surprised at how violent and tense some of the scenes can get in this sequel.
In this movie I did enjoy the beginning parts of the film where they spent a lot of time establishing the characters of Rutger (Phillipe Klaus) and Katarina (Shannon Ashlynn) who were exploring the outback and the Wolf Creek location. The film did well to really display how isolated everything was out there at Wolf Creek and how alone these two people really were. There’s absolutely nothing out there and very few people around except for Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) of course. Having a sense of isolation in such a secluded location does well to add in the danger of what is happening to these characters. When two people are out there alone and someone like Mick Taylor show’s up in the middle of the night asking “What in the bloody hell are you buggers doing out here?” Just what is one supposed to do?
Where I think the film went a little bit wrong though was with Ryan Corr’s character, Paul Hammersmith. He appears in the majority of the film but I didn’t really know much about him. He was not a built up character like Rutger and Katarina and just came along a quarter of the way in. I don’t know what he was doing out there really and in fact I barely even knew his name. It’s not really a bad thing though, it’s not like I go into horror movies expecting the top class of character development and back story, but still, a little bit would have been nice.
What the film did really well though was Mick Taylor’s character. He is just as terrifying and dangerous as he was in the first film. Even though I now know he’s dangerous, some of the things Mick Taylor did in this movie were crazy. I would have appreciated a little bit more on how he became how he is in the sequel, or more about why he does what he does but the film didn’t really need it. You do know that he hates foreign tourists and maybe that’s enough to know about him and he does have this crazy laugh as well, which is both terrifying and funny. I also really enjoy the way the character introduces himself, when asked for his name he says “Mick Taylor” but in a sort of proud way. It’s very interesting that he does that, he must have a very weird idea of what he himself is, does he think he is a hero? Or is Mick Taylor just a proud man? Definitely Mick Taylor is a very interesting character to analyse.
In terms of the acting in Wolf Creek 2, everyone was great. John Jarratt as Mick Taylor is incredibly terrifying in this role just like he was in the original Wolf Creek. It’s great to see Mick Taylor back on screen again and even though Mick Taylor is one of the most horrible people I’ve ever seen on screen his ability to perform and make every scene that has just a bit of danger filled with tension makes this movie worth seeing on its own. Shannon Ashlynn and Phillipe Klaus as Katarina and Rutger were both good in their roles and Shannon Ashlynn in particular was very good I thought in the terrified, screaming/in shock scenes, she was very believable and real. Ryan Corr as Paul was also great in his role as well and delivered a great performance opposite John Jarratt particularly towards the end of the film. Everyone was great really, I don’t have any complaints about the acting, the movie was very tense and the actors all did well to create a sense of realism in the scenes.
There are some things though that I didn’t like about Wolf Creek 2 though. I didn’t like that some parts of the film were attempting to be comical. Every time it did this I ended up just thinking the movie was just something stupid really. The comical scenes for me took away all the seriousness of Wolf Creek 2 and even though it’s a break from the tense scenes, it just didn’t seem necessary. It’s not like the comical scenes are funny either, it just seems to be there to lighten the film for a moment. I also didn’t like the music that was put, not the original score, but the songs. They seemed wrong to me and way too noticeable. At one point “In The Jungle” was played and it was just a silly scene really. Also in the same scene a whole lot of Kangaroo’s are run over that seemed a bit excessive. While the movie did have some really great tense and horrifying scenes, some of it was just silly and took away from the immersion. Also the ending of Wolf Creek 2 is a little bit flat as well, but I don’t think that it’s such a big deal.
If you’ve also watched the trailer above, it does sort of make the movie look more like an action movie compared to the first film. I can tell you that it isn’t at all an action movie and is most similar to the original Wolf Creek. There are a few car chases though which I thought were shot really well by the director Greg McLean. Like many Australian films car scenes always seem to have loud engines and the cars seem to lunge right up the camera. The car chase scenes in this movie are good and great to watch. There aren’t many of these chase scenes, but the movie is in no way what I’d call an action movie, it’s definitely in the horror genre.
Overall Wolf Creek 2 is a very good horror film. The scenes are tense and Mick Taylor is as dangerous as ever. Yes I would have liked more from the character development side, but it’s not so needed in a horror movie. Some parts do get a bit silly and there are some over the top moments. But overall Wolf Creek 2 does deliver on the scares and I think many people will be frightened from a lot of the scenes. There’s some great moments towards the end that I can’t spoil but certainly Wolf Creek 2 is a very shocking film that I’m sure will capture and hold audiences attention. I watched this movie at the drive in cinema and I saw many people get out of their car during the more violent scenes, I guess they couldn’t handle it… It’s definitely worth a trip to the cinema this week just to boast that you survived it without leaving the room.
