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Inspired in part by some unsolved murders in the Australian outback, and by the gruesome backpacker murders committed by Ivan Milat in NSW during the late 1980s/early 1990s, Wolf Creek tells the story of three young backpackers, Ben Mitchell, an Australian, and Liz Hunter and Kristy Earl, both English. Although the girls don't know Ben all that well, he and Liz fancy each other. After buying a car in Broome, situated in the far north coast of Western Australia, the trio head east with the intention of driving across the top end to Cairns (Queensland). At the end of their first day in the desert, their car breaks down at a deserted tourist site - the large crater of a meteorite. Later that night a truck arrives, driven by a real outback character, Mick Taylor. He tows them to his isolated camp at an abandoned mine site, promising to fix their car. All three tourists fall asleep after Mick drugs them. When Liz wakes up, she is bound and gagged and her friends are missing and the nightmare begins.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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10 Years of Homegrown Horror Hits : Talk To Me and the Golden Age of Aussie Horror
2023
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— Appears in: The Conversation , 8 August 2023; -
The Isolation at the Heart of Australian Horror
2020
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— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , November 2020;'Australian horror films have always had a unique fascination with the continent’s landscape. Though the genre has evolved from the Ozploitation era into more complex territory, it remains moulded by the terra nullius myth and a colonial sense of disconnection from the land. '
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Leave No Trace
2019
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essay
— Appears in: The Believer , 1 April no. 124 2019; -
Dead Heart : Australia’s Horror Cinema
2018
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— Appears in: FilmInk , 31 October 2018; -
Dead Heart : Australia’s Horror Cinema
2018
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— Appears in: FilmInk , 31 October 2018;
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Highway to Hell
2005
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review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 29 - 30 October 2005; (p. 1-2)
— Review of Wolf Creek 2005 single work film/TV -
A True Blue Psycho
2005
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review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 2 November 2005; (p. 8)
— Review of Wolf Creek 2005 single work film/TV -
Wolf Creek (Greg Mclean, 2005)
2009
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review
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , no. 52 2009;
— Review of Wolf Creek 2005 single work film/TV -
Up the Creek
2005
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— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 28 October 2005; (p. 4) -
The Cars That Ate the Picnic at Wolf Creek: A Symposium on Australian Horror Films
2009
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criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australian Weird Fiction , no. 3 2009; (p. 147-166) Critics David Carroll, Robert Hood and Lee Battersby answer several questions posed by Studies in Australian Weird Fiction and provide fans of the genre with personal insights and interpretations never before discussed, spotlighting a variety of old and modern films. -
Top Five Oz Road Films
2009
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— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 20 December 2009; (p. 12) -
The Murderous State : The Naturalisation of Violence and Exclusion in The Films of Neoliberal Australia
2009
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criticism
— Appears in: Cultural Studies Review , vol. 15 no. 1 2009; (p. 11-32) -
Dying to Come to Australia : Asylum Seekers, Tourists and Death
2007
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Our Patch : Enacting Australian Sovereignty Post-2001 2007; (p. 167-196) Imagined Australia : Reflections around the Reciprocal Construction of Identity between Australia and Europe 2009; (p. 57-87)
Awards
- Australian Outback, Central Australia,