Wolf Creek

Wolf Creek will slip under the radar for most people. I've seen three trailers for it so far. Two were international trailers for the UK and Australian releases, and the third was the internet-only trailer for its US release. All three contain about the same footage, with the US version containing about thirty seconds more. All three are effective.

Wolf Creek is based on a series of real abductions/murders that took place along a particular highway in Australia from 1989 to 1992. For the film's sake, the mythos of those abductions are compressed into one story taking place in 1999, which is undoubtedly why the film uses the loose tagline "Based on Actual Events."

The trailer shows a group of college-aged young adults taking a long road trip to explore the Australian countryside. When their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, they are offered help by a local farmer. They hook up their car to his truck, and he tows them...somewhere. They are soon imprisoned and tortured. It is strongly suggested in the trailer that at least one protagonist gets fed to wild dogs.

The tone of the trailer is a little too close to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and will probably turn off American audiences who are sick of seeing remakes. Too bad, because closer observation will reveal Wolf Creek to be much darker and terrifying. Texas Chainsaw Massacre had a family of raving psychopaths, whereas the villains of Wolf Creek appear to be perfectly sane, just sadistic. Plus, it looks like the movie will take a lot of time establishing the characters before thrusting them into perril. In a horror film, a little character developement goes a long way. Wolf Creek also appears to be beautifully shot, with the early scenes of Australia looking bright and beautiful and the latter scenes of imprisonment harsh and dirty, but not overly dark as most American horror films repeatedly do.

I have high hopes for this film based on its trailers.