Wolf Creek review

A film that will do little for the fortunes of the Australian tourism industry, Wolf Creek begins with some chilling facts about the unusually high numbers of people that go missing in the country. But given that it is a huge and remote place - so big that it's not uncommon for outlying buildings and farms to be forgotten about and left off maps - this is perhaps not such a surprise. When three young tourists enter this land, on their way to a giant crater known as Wolf Creek, they begin an odyssey that makes for a compelling film, and although the denouement raises some questions concerning veracity, for the first half at least it is as terrifying as The Blair Witch Project was when it first became a worldwide phenomenon.

The three tourists are comprised of two British girls, winding up their trip Down Under and their roguish Australian companion. The three drive around in a battered old car, enjoying drinking, partying and sleeping on the beach until their final destination of Wolf Creek emerges out of the vast unknown that is the continent's hinterland. Along the way they make new friends, and the odd enemy in the shape of some forthright Australian bush dwellers.

What's terrific about Greg McLean's debut feature is the way in which he builds up the suspense over the film's first half. He takes his time in developing the characters, plot and place, and it pays off - the audience is firmly aware that something less than pleasant is about to happen to the three central characters, while the trio itself blithely carries on regardless. They joke, squabble, play guitar and a romance begins, all the time assuming they are in the next best place to heaven. It's a brave move by McLean and one which could easily become dull or pointless, but the result is actually a brilliant textbook example of how to create suspense.

He is aided by both an impressive cast of unfamiliar faces who are at ease with each other and their situation, as well as the lush Australian scenery which is perfectly captured and appears both serene and menacing. When the very bad thing occurs however, there's a sharp change in the film's tone: and although everyone knows it is what has been coming all along, it never quite reaches the heights that it might have.

This is partly to do with a couple of moments when anyone in the audience will want to scream at the central character for doing something completely stupid and irrational, as well as a worrying final title card which plays with the audience's perceptions of what they have just seen, to the point of making it somewhat illogical. Nevertheless, minor grievances apart, this is extremely tense stuff which should satisfy anybody who likes going to the cinema to be scared witless .

Paul Hurley