Despite the considerable buzz generated at Sundance, there's not ultimately much separating director Greg McLean's nasty little thriller from your standard garden variety kids-stalked-in-the-wilderness-and-hacked-to-bits flick.
The story here (based on true events, we're solemnly assured) is basic and simple: three young pals (Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi), on vacation in the Australian outback, find themselves stranded and then pursued by a sadistic and seemingly invincible killer. The killer gloats, the kids die and that's really about it.
The film benefits during its first hour from appealing naturalistic performances from its young leads, as well as moody, minimalist music and careful editing that contribute to a precisely mounting air of tension and dread. You can see that director McLean's studied early Peter Weir films like Picnic at Hanging Rock in the way he subtly manipulates atmosphere during Wolf Creek's early sections. But when all that tension finally boils over and explodes, as we know it eventually must, the movie quickly degenerates into a graphic and unabashedly brutal bloodfest that lacks even the metaphorical civilization-consumed-by-the-wilderness weight of a The Hills Have Eyes. The first part of the film is skillfully crafted, but the slapdash and weirdly joyless "resolution" makes it painfully apparent that there's not a single fresh idea to be found here. Also stars John Jarratt.
Wolf Creek (R) opens Jan. 6 at local theaters.Two Stars
This article appears in Jan 4-10, 2006.