Wolf Creek (2005)
Directed by Greg McLean
Three backpackers stranded in the Australian outback are plunged inside a hellish nightmare of insufferable torture by a sadistic psychopathic local.
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What critics compared Wolf Creek to
It was Roth’s 2005 Hostel that inspired critic David Edelstein to coin the term when writing about how the Americans-being-dismembered-abroad feature and contemporaries like Wolf Creek and The Devil’s Rejects upped their gore factor to unprecedented levels for multiplex movies.
Australia has a solid reputation for spooky horror movies, whether it’s the slasher thrills of Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek franchise or the psychological chills of Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook .
A booby-trapped backpacker survival saga set in deepest Bolivia, based on a memoir by Israeli explorer Yossi Ghinsberg, “Jungle” may ostensibly be a nobler departure from the exuberantly grisly genre fare on which McLean has made his name — but structurally and atmospherically, it has more in common with his smashing 2005 breakout “Wolf Creek” than you might guess.
It adheres to a structure that director Greg McLean used in 2005’s Wolf Creek : slowly familiarizing us with its characters, so that even if they’re not exactly likable, they’re sympathetic in their recognizable humanity.
McLean is at his best when he avoids bells and whistles and focuses on creating a straightforward atmosphere of dread, as in his first two films, Wolf Creek and Rogue (or his episode of the subsequent Wolf Creek TV miniseries ).
Yossi Ghinsberg’s true-life survival story is filled with harrowing twists and near-death turns, yet this chronicle of his experiences from director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) never sufficiently captures the depth of his perilous plight.
Complete with an Israeli accent, Radcliffe here suffers for his art as Australian director Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) pits him against such familiar jungle perils as river rapids, fire ants, foot rot and quicksand.
There’s a nihilistic quality to director Greg McLean’s previous work, including the Wolf Creek series and last year’s The Belko Experiment.
An appealing Josephine Langford ( Wish Upon , Wolf Creek ) plays the central role of Tessa, a fresh-faced teen who at the story's beginning is starting her first year at college.
Josephine Langford of “Wolf Creek” and “Wish Upon” is Tessa, whom we meet as she’s delivered to Atlanta’s Rossmore University by her helicopter divorced mom (Selma Blair) and still-in-high-school beau Noah (Dylan Arnold).
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Australia has a rich catalogue of horror movies, with The Babadook the latest and greatest entry in a canon that includes Picnic at Hanging Rock and Wolf Creek .
If Craven and his cohorts emerged in the wake of the Vietnam war, Aja (along with other young, thoughtful horror makers, like Wolf Creek's Greg McLean and Cabin Fever/Hostel's Eli Roth) are conjuring their nightmares amid increasing rage against America as well as U.S. invasions, neglects, and abuses.
But though it has elements in common with every movie that ever sent a batch of comely youngsters into the wilderness (for starters: The Ruins, Wolf Creek, Wrong Turn), The Cabin in the Woods is not strictly speaking, a slasher flick.