Harefooted Halloween: Wolf Creek

What I Liked: The filmmakers tried to do something sort of different with a slasher picture and came up with a talkative and pretty charismatic serial killer.  The guy is so friendly at first that it truly was a little difficult to believe that he’s a total maniac that will kill some strangers at the drop of a hat.  The villain is definitely the best part of the movie and shows that you don’t have to hide your killer behind a mask or have them be a brooding shadowy figure.  A chatty and outgoing psychopath can actually work.

It was nice to have main character victims that were likeable and not total assholes.  Sure the one dude is a stereotype of a bro douchebag but he comes off as a charming bro douchebag.

What I Didn’t Like: Half the movie is setup which I’ll admit didn’t feel as long as forty five minutes but man, that’s a long time to get your slasher picture going.  So because they took half the running time to set shit up the pacing is incredibly off.

There isn’t a final confrontation exactly between the killer and our survivor.  I get they were going for something different here but it was pretty unsatisfying to see one of the three victims killed in such an impersonal way (of course I won’t give away how it was actually done).

And filmmakers, guys, you gotta put the fuckin’ camera down.  There was way too much shaking for my taste.

Overall Impression: I can appreciate the attempt at thinking outside the box on this one but in the end it didn’t work great for me.  The movie is very lopsided with everything of interest happening in the second half.  Sure you want to setup your characters properly and set a mood and all that but if it’s gonna be some slasher/madman movie in the end then I don’t think you used your time effectively.

This isn’t terrible.  You could certainly do worse.  I was expecting more of a torture porn type picture (a sub-genre that I really don’t like by the way), but it was more tasteful, so to speak, than that.  It’s not groundbreaking or anything-breaking.  If you love horror you’ll probably enjoy the twists and somewhat unique things the filmmakers tried to do.  If you’re looking for something more than just ok, keep searching.