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Friday, June 27, 2014

Wolf Creek 2 Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Allie Schembra
Image Entertainment, an RLJ Entertainment brand, brings you the much-anticipated sequel Wolf Creek 2. Lured by the promise of an Australian holiday, exchange student Paul visits the notorious Wolf Creek Crater. His dream Outback adventure soon becomes a horrific reality when he encounters the site’s most infamous local, Mick Taylor (John Jarratt). When Paul attempts to flee, Mick pursues him across a hostile wasteland and eventually drags him back to his underground lair. After seeing the true magnitude of Mick's monstrosity, Paul's only hope of surviving, where no one has before, will be to use every ounce of cunning to outwit the man behind the monster.
Film (3 1/2 out of 5 stars)
On a lonely stretch of Australian highway, a highway patrol car sits waiting for their next speeder.  When a truck goes by, they pull it over, even though the driver was not speeding.  After giving the driver a hard time, the officers give him a ticket, get back in their car and drive away.  A minute later, a shot rings out and the car crashes into a ditch.  The man they just ticketed walks up with a gasoline can and sets the car on fire with both officers inside.

In Sydney, a young German couple, Rutgar and Katarina, is having a great time at a hostel.  They party the night away and the next day start out on a journey hitch hiking across the Outback to Wolf Creek Crater.  Along the way, they camp out at caravan locations and find that not all people are willing to stop and pick up a couple of hitch hikers.  Finally a man in a truck stops, but before they can get to the truck, he drives away.  Hot, tired and hungry, they stop for the evening and set up their tent.  Late that night, they hear a car approaching and Rutgar climbs out of the tent to investigate.  Turns out, it’s the man who stopped and drove away earlier.  He offers them a ride, telling them it’s illegal to camp in that area, but Rutgar senses something is wrong and refuses to leave.  This angers the man and he kills Rutgar in front of Katarina.  He knocks Katarina out and plans on taking her back to his lair, but before he can do that, she escapes.

Katarina runs through the desert to the road, where she comes upon a young man in a jeep, Paul.  Paul stops and helps a terrified Katarina, but soon realizes that Mick is on his tail.  After some crazy driving, Paul escapes, but sees Katarina did not make it.  He wraps Katarina’s body and leaves her in the desert and drives away, looking for help.  When morning arrives, he sees that Mick has found him and tries once again to out drive him.  Unfortunately, his car runs out of gas and overheats and he’s pushed off a small cliff.  Paul escapes and finds refuge in a lonely home with a couple who has offered help.  Before they can, Mick finds them and Paul is finally captured by Mick.

When Paul awakens, he’s tied to a chair in an underground lair.  It’s no use to escape and Mick sits down with Paul and offers him a drink.  They begin drinking and Paul realizes that getting Mick drunk might be the only way to survive.  Mick says he’ll let Paul go if he plays a little game with him, but Paul realizes that he has no intention of letting him go.  Finally, Paul escapes the chair and runs through the lair looking for a way out.

When I saw Wolf Creek, I was disgusted and thought it couldn’t get any worse.  Wolf Creek 2 proves that it can… and I enjoyed it!  Wolf Creek 2 is bloodier, gorier and absolutely disgusting to the point where you have to wonder how much of it was absolutely necessary to the story.  The manner in which Mick kills his victims varies from gunshots to stabbings, to torture, but it’s what he does once they are dead that makes my stomach turn.  I enjoy a good bloody film, but every once in a while, a gory movie comes along and I’m glad I wasn’t eating while watching it.  Wolf Creek 2 is one of those movies.
Video (3 out of 5 stars)
Wolf Creek 2’s video presentation is okay.  The 1080p high-definition widescreen 2.35:1 transfer has good coloring, and flows well, especially in the chase scenes.  There is a lot of brown and orange in the Australian Outback and in night scenes, I could still see everything.  These scenes looked natural, with just enough dirt and dust to make it believable.  The dead bodies and ensuing dismembering was a little rubbery and not too realistic, but not knowing what something like that really looks like, I can’t really say for sure. 
Audio (3 out of 5 stars)
At times, it was difficult to hear some of the dialogue, specifically from the German tourists.  Though they were speaking in German and subtitles were provided, it was still difficult to hear.  Mick’s accent was garbled at times, and when there was yelling, sometimes I couldn’t make out what they were saying.  That said, sound levels were mostly consistent, and the issues with my hearing were just from the accents not being something I’m used to. 
Extras (2 1/2 out of 5 stars)
Of the two features, the behind-the-scenes look was the most interesting.  
  • Butchers Cut: Deleted scenes – 25 minutes of deleted scenes from the film. Most were extended scenes of the ones that were still in the film. None of which should have stayed in the movie. I thought they were all good choices to leave out.
  • Creating a Monster: The Making of Wolf Creek 2 – Almost an hour of cast and crew interviews about the film, how it was made and thoughts on the characters. This was interesting, especially seeing the actor who plays Mick Taylor as a normal guy. He’s much less scary during the interviews than in the film.
    Summary (3 out of 5 stars)
    Wolf Creek 2 is a horror movie that will gross you out.  Another film that is “based on a true story,” one has to wonder how much of it is true.  To me, it seems like they took an urban legend with some truth to it and turned it into a pretty good movie franchise.  I will definitely rewatch this and have already agreed to pass it on to someone who wants to see it.

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