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One of my intentions with this site was to try to post something about each of the gigs I go to, each of the cd's I buy, each of the books I read, and the more noteworthy games that I play. And, to post something about each of the films that I see. From my point of view this should be an interesting exercise; I should be able to look back and think "wow, yeah, I went to see him" or "I remember watching that". The weekend before last, I went to see Wolf Creek. Here's a little slice of something about it. The film tells the tale of two English girls (Liz and Cristy), one Australian guy (Ben), and their road trip across Australia in the cheapest car they can find. On the way they have a desire to see the large meteor crater known as "Wolf Creek", within which strange things have been said to happen. Everything is going according to plan; Liz and Ben are starting to fall for each other, the group are getting on well, and even a brief argument with some locals is resolved peacefully. Things start to take a turn for the worse when, bellies full of the site of the awesome landscape on offer at Wolf Creek, they return to their car only to find that it won't start… Enter Mick (John Jarret) - a handy local with a pick-up truck, and a friendly attitude. He can tow their car back to his camp, fix it up, and they can be on their way as soon as its done. Even better, he doesn't want anything for his trouble… The Guardian review of Wolf Creek described it in a way that I thought was really quite appropriate: "Ordeal Horror". I've never come across this phrase before, but it accurately describes the genre that this film and many before it (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, Haute Tension etc) fall into. Whilst I wouldn't rate Wolf Creek as highly as Texas Chainsaw (and certainly not as highly as Haute Tension, the stand out horror film of the last few years), it's not without it's merits. It takes it's time, devoting a large chunk of the film to building up it's characters, rather than launching straight into the horror. The Australian scenery gives the film an awesome look, and doesn't betray it's low budget origins. The direction, for the most part, is slick and effective. Sadly, the same can't be said for the performances of the three leads - whilst they're adequate for the most part, there are times when the ad-libing is quite uncomfortable, and there are occasional moments of unconvincing terror. That said, John Jarret's performance is undoubtedly the highlight of the film. He pulls of everything that's asked of him with terrifying ease. Wolf Creek is a pretty nasty little film too: There are a few cringe inducing moments, in particular the "head on a stick" scene, and the general mood of the film is unpleasantly tense once it gets going with precious little respite until the end credits. All in all, Wolf Creek isn't a classic - it's been done before, and probably better than here. However, I'm not aware of an Australian equivalent, so it's setting alone makes it worth seeing. John Jarret's performance makes the film stand out too, raising it from a mediocre slasher film to something which holds it own quite nicely.