Волчий ручей: Австралийский хоррор о выживании

2005 Australian horror film by Greg McLean

|$22,060,400efn lr|According to Box Office Mojo, the film earned US$16,188,180 in the United States between 25 December 2005 and 9 March 2006. The film also has a score of 54 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare grade of "F" on a scale of A+ to F.

Upon the film's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2005, Dennis Harvey of Variety praised the film's "richly atmospheric" photography and McLean's direction, comparing it to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, though noting: "Ending on a rather bleak note, and lacking the kind of false scares or other devices that normally give horror auds an occasional breather, [Wolf Creek] is scary cinema pushed to the brink of punishment. But there’s no question that what it sets out to do, it does alarmingly well." Paul Byrnes of The Sydney Morning Herald praised Jarratt's performance in the film, ultimately deeming it "exceptional Aussie horror". The Ages Jim Schembri called the film "a cheaply made, highly derivative, blood soaked splatter film in which a clutch of young people on holiday encounter a psychopath with a love for dismemberment and laughing out loud when he hurts someone", though noted: "What sets [it] apart is the skill with which McLean synthesizes his cinematic sampling into a seamless, deeply seductive narrative. He winks at his references but never takes his eye off his own story or his brilliant modulations of suspense and character tension". In the United Kingdom during its September 2005 theatrical run, The Independent praised the film for its departure from typical genre prototypes. The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw awarded it four out of five stars. Time Out wrote of the film: "by making us feel the pain, Greg McLean's ferocious, taboo breaking film tells us so much more about how and why we watch horror movies". Critical reviews in the United States varied: Several critics, such as the Chicago Sun Timess Roger Ebert, lambasted the film's depiction of violence, and with some even walking out of screenings. Ebert awarded the film a zero out of four stars, writing: "It is a film with one clear purpose: To establish the commercial credentials of its director by showing his skill at depicting the brutal tracking, torture and mutilation of screaming young women I wanted to walk out of the theatre and keep on walking". Similarly, The Seattle Times film critic Moira Macdonald wrote that Wolf Creek was the first film she ever walked out of; she called watching the film "punishment" and wondered how someone's real death inspired this "entertainment". Manohla Dargis of The New York Times noted: "Mr. McLean has apparently watched his share of Val Lewton, the legendary B movie producer who could raise shivers just by dimming the lights. Alas, Mr. McLean's commitment to contemporary genre expectations turns out to be unwavering and what follows these imaginative night tremors is just the usual butchery". Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice wrote of the film: "The ambitions are so paltry that our response should be too: Wolf Creek is unimaginative, light on the grue and heavy on the faux serious desperation. It's actually something of a Spanish Inquisition–level trial by overacting—the three leads are low budget dull, but as the anti–Crocodile Dundee, Jarratt is a leering, jeering, winking, colloquialism belching horror". G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle, however, praised the film's "naturalistic" style, writing: "What's Christmas Day without a good serial killer movie? There are no obnoxious teenagers in Wolf Creek, nor are there ghosts, possessed children, haunted web sites or supernaturally produced videotapes. There isn't even an Asian horror film upon which to base the screenplay. Instead, there is desolation, real terror and one hell of a villain in rural Australia in Greg McLean's energetically gritty bit of low budget showmanship". The film magazines Empire gave the film 4/5 stars, with Empire calling it "a grimy gut chiller that unsettles as much as it thrills, violently shunting you to the edge of your seat before clamping onto your memory like a rusty mantrap".

Wolf Creek has been cited as one of several films released in the mid 2000s that initiated a "substantial boom" of Australian horror films. Film critics David Edelstein and Bilge Ebiri placed the film at 25th on their list of "the 25 Best Horror Films Since The Shining". In a 2010 retrospective, Slant Magazine included the film in its list of the 100 best films of the past decade, and in 2018, Esquire listed it as 14th scariest film of all time. The film has also received scholarly attention. In A Companion to the Horror Film (2017), film scholar Harry Benshoff cites Wolf Creek as a "distinguished" example of the "torture porn" subgenera, noting its "detailed character development compelling performances and sustained use of dread" as key features. Additionally, he praised the film's cinematography and sound design, which "mirrors the development of narrative intensity". Historian Elise Rosser discusses Wolf Creek as a notable example of rural outback horror, which subverts rural idealism to render the outback as a "place for monsters". Additionally, Rosser observes how McLean draws upon Australian cultural memories of violent and shocking crimes, inverting the Australian trope of the larrikin to "personify the monsters waiting in the outback". An HD DVD was also released in North American markets on 19 December 2006. The film was released on Blu ray in Australia by Roadshow Entertainment on 19 February 2014.

Award Category Subject Result Ref. (Reference)AACTA Awards(2005 AFI Awards) Best DirectionGreg McLean Best Original Screenplay Best Editing Jason Ballantine Best Cinematography Will Gibson Best Actress in a Supporting Role Kestie Morassi Best Original Music Score Frank Tétaz Best Sound Des Kenneally Peter Smith Pete Best Tom Heuzenroeder Fangoria Chainsaw Award Best Actor John Jarratt Saturn AwardBest Horror Film David Lightfoot Greg McLean

After the success of the first film, McLean postponed plans to immediately work on a sequel in favor of directing Rogue. Production was initially expected to commence in 2011 and John Jarratt was announced to reprise his role of Mick Taylor. In August 2011 Geoffrey Edelsten was announced as a private investor for the movie and that he would be funding A$5 million into the production of Wolf Creek 2 after reading the script. Later that same year, Edelsten withdrew his funding, alleging that he had been misled by McLean and Emu Creek Pictures into believing that he would not be the largest single private investor, a claim the production company denied. Filming and production of Wolf Creek 2 was postponed until late 2012, when additional funding was made available through the South Australian Film Corporation. Filming took place in late 2012 and early 2013 in Australia, and the movie had its world premiere on 30 August 2013 at the Venice Film Festival. The film was given a wide release in Australia on 20 February 2014. In 2016, the Wolf Creek web television series debuted on Stan. The series saw Jarratt return to his role as Mick Taylor. A second series aired in 2017 and it was confirmed a third film was still planned. As of April 2022, after a series of delays, some linked to the COVID 19 pandemic, another film, Wolf Creek 3, was in the development phase, specifically, location scouting. It is set to be directed by Rachele Wiggins and written by Duncan Samarasinghe with Greg McLean as producer. Altitude Film Distribution will distribute in the U. K. John Jarratt will reprise his role as the psychopathic Mick Taylor. The premise is "An American family takes a dream trip to the Australian outback and soon draws the attention of notorious serial killer Mick Taylor. A hellish nightmare ensues as the couple's two children escape only to be hunted by Australia's most infamous killer." Wolf Creek 3 is set to be released, with the tagline "There Will be Blood".

McLean, Greg; Hearn, Matt; Magrath, Cassandra; and Morassi, Kestie (2014). Wolf Creek. Audio commentary (DVD). Genius Products.