WOLF CREEK & HOSTEL TURN 20: HOW 2005's SHOCKERS CHANGED HORROR HISTORY

WOLF CREEK (2005) d. Greg McLean (Australia)
WOLF CREEK 2 (2013) d. Greg McLean (Australia)
WOLF CREEK (2016-17) d. Tony Tilse/Greg McLean (Australia)
HOSTEL (2005) d. Eli Roth (USA)
HOSTEL: PART II (2007) d. Eli Roth (USA)
HOSTEL: PART III (2011) d. Scott Spiegel (USA)

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Tonight, we’ll be discussing two films that helped change the face of horror when they hit screens in late 2005, both from young and hungry writer/directors who wanted to make a splash... or splatter, as the case might be: Wolf Creek from Australian Greg McLean and Eli Roth’s Hostel.

WOLF CREEK 2 (2013) Blu-ray Review

Wolf Creek 2 (2013) d. Greg McLean (Australia) (106 min)

In 2005, audiences were introduced to Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) stalking tourists in writer/director McLean’s supremely nasty and well-executed slice of suspense and pain, based on Australia’s notorious “backpacker murders.” The young filmmaker’s debut outraged mainstream critics who ignored the slow-burn character development, palpable disorientation, excruciating suspense, and late great cinematographer Will Gibson’s breathtaking lensing of the bucolic Outback vistas, focusing their ire on the admittedly brutal third act of young bodies being bloodied and broken. Horror fans, however, immediately identified one of their own, embracing McLean and his psychotic creation with open arms.

ROGUE (2007) DVD review

Rogue (2007) d. McLean, Greg (Australia) (99 min)

As a follow-up to his unvarnished, viscerally effective serial killer flick Wolf Creek, writer/director McLean continues to thwart the Australian tourist trade with this derivative but reasonably entertaining creature feature. Pitting an enormous crocodile against a riverboat full of tourists on a leisure wildlife cruise, Rogue goes through the predictable series of chompings and near-chompings... and that’s about it, finding little new to do with the milieu.

NEXT OF KIN (1982) Blu-ray review

Next of Kin (1982) d. Tony Williams (Australia) (89 min)

Jacki Kerin stars as a lass Down Under who, upon reading her recently deceased mother’s diary, discovers numerous dark secrets about the family nursing home. In addition to a glowing electronic score by Klaus Schulze (Tangerine Dream), Gary Hansen’s elegant cinematography, and the presence of John Jarratt (20 years before reaching genre-icon status with Wolf Creek), the slow-burn twists and turns of Michael Heath and director Williams’ script deliver the goods, effectively coupled with memorable screen imagery and flowing Steadicam magic. (The final reel is packed with moments of wonder, including an unforgettable overhead slow-motion hallway run, the diner’s tension-building sugar cube scene, and the wall-crashing, head-splashing, explosives-blasting climax.)

100 BLOODY ACRES (2012) movie review

100 Bloody Acres (2012) d. Cairnes, Cameron / Cairnes, Colin (Australia)

While the topic of commercialized cannibalism has been around for a spell (dating back to Ted V. Mikels’ The Corpse Grinders and H.G. Lewis’ Blood Feast on into Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Motel Hell, among others), the Brothers Cairnes have entered a particularly strong candidate to the race with this Outback black comedy special.