Wolf Creek 2

Sometimes the best reason to watch certain films is because of the villain: Friday The 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hellraiser and Predator just to name a few.  Why?  Because the villain is often extraordinarily memorable and entertaining.  They often leave an indelible mark on cinema and on the audience.  It's a really spectacular thing to see the bad guy do his thing.  It's often gory and unforgettable.  In 2005, an Australian director by the name of Greg Mclean released Wolf Creek onto unsuspecting audiences.  While the film garnered mixed reviews, it was generally well received.  It was a bit of a slow-burner until towards the end of the film.  But the one thing that everybody seems to agree on, was that the villain was nothing short of amazing.  Mick Taylor, played by Australian actor John Jarratt, became one of the most notorious on-screen villains to date.  The film was also loosely based on actual events that involved the murder of backpackers during the 90s.

Wolf Creek 2 opens as Mick Taylor is pulled over by the police and wrongly accused of going over the speed limit.  Mick Taylor, being who he is, doesn't take to this kindly, decides to go after the cops and kills them in spectacular fashion.  The film cuts to a couple of German tourists who intended on visiting the Wolf Creek Crater.  After trying to hitch a ride back to civilization, they decide to spend the night in the wilderness.  Mick Taylor sees their campfire and decides to visit the two.  One of the tourists inadvertently offends Taylor and pays for it with his life.  The woman is sexually assaulted(off-screen)but escapes while Taylor cuts up what's left of her boyfriend.  She ends up being rescued by an English tourist, Paul(Ryan Corr).  Mick Taylor finds them and chases them across the Australian Outback.

Sometimes the way a movie opens will determine how the rest of the movie will flow.  The original film started out slow and allowed everything to come to a boil towards the end, and then: BAM!!  It all hits the fan.  Wolf Creek 2 takes a very different approach.  A lot of complaints about the first movie was that it started off too slow and took forever to get to the good stuff.  This movie starts off with a bang, when Mick Taylor murders the two police officers, who honestly have it coming.   The tone of this movie is a bit different.  Instead of a methodical slow-burner, what we have here is an action-packed, blood-soaked high speed thriller that improves on the original film in many ways.  This is Mick Taylor's movie through and through.  It's really centered around him.  While he is still a scumbag, he's one that you end up rooting for, which can be the mark of a great villain.  Not always, but sometimes.  His motivations for doing what he does are a little bit more explained, but not by a whole lot, we do know that he feels that foreign tourists are trespassing on Australia, thinking that they own everything, and he hates them for it.  But it's still not really clear how he gets to that point, at least not in the films, as there are at least two books that explain some of Mick's backstory, and why he's the lunatic that he is.

As I said before, this is Mick Taylor's movie through and through, and John Jarratt once again, delivers an astounding performance of a man that you can actually be drinking buddies with and turn into a monster at the drop of a hat.  The character also has a very dark and twisted sense of humor that just permeates the whole movie.  It's often creepy and yet funny at the same time.  I don't think anybody else could have pulled it off the way Jarratt did.  The other characters in the movie?  Cannon fodder, that's all.  So, how about the gore and the action?  Top-notch.  This is a very gory movie, as evidenced when one of the cops' heads basically explodes at the beginning of the movie.  And the gore is practical, not CGI, which is awesome.  This is a movie that has also been influenced by movies such as Duel, which means: Car chases.  And they are thrilling.  There's even a goofy bit in which Taylor chases Paul in an 18-wheeler through a herd of kangaroos.  Yes, I said kangaroos.  That was the only time I noticed that CGI was used.  Taylor even chases Paul on horseback.  So, yeah, the movie is a thrill-ride from beginning to end.

If there is one complaint I have about this movie, is that like the film before, it claims to be based on true events, and while that may be the case, it just feels that the whole "based on true events" tagline is used like a cliche.  Wolf Creek wasn't the first movie to use this.  A lot of movies, horror and otherwise, have used this as a selling point, and I just don't think it's really necessary.  Is Wolf Creek 2 over the top?  Yes.  Yes it is, and that's part of why it's so damned fun.  I think some people are going to assume that this comes across as an action movie, it really isn't.  It's definitely a horror movie through and through, the pacing is just different than the previous movie and I think that works to film's benefit.  Greg Mclean has definitely crafted an incredible villain and John Jarratt's performance is out of this world.  I know people had problems with the first movie, but I loved it and I loved this one.  Will there be a third movie?  I honestly believe that there will be.  And I hope so.  Overall, I give Wolf Creek 2 an enthusiastic 9/10.  Recommended.