Wolf Creek 2 is not a bad horror story in itself but, as with many other movies of the genre, hardly anyone acts like a real person would which means that, rather than being horrified, the viewer is frustrated.
For starters, a cop is brutally murdered by the antagonist, Mick Taylor (John Jarrett) - pity they used the same name as Mick 'Crocodile' Dundee, especially when the two characters are so similar yet so different - and the 'evidence' - that is, the cop car with two bodies, one with his head half blown off, burned. In the 21st century, forensic experts would have easily identified what had actually happened and the outback would be teeming with detectives searching for the perpetrator within days. Then, as successive foreign tourist backpackers went mysteriously missing, connections would be made and, ultimately, suspects singled out. The damage to Taylor's vehicle would be analysed and his weapons matched with bullets etc.
In the movie, we aren't told exactly who Mick Taylor is other than that he's a 'pig hunter' but, in outback Australia, someone like him would be a well-known local character and, logic says, probably one with not too many friends. Nevertheless, he would have had to buy fuel and spares for his vehicles, ammunition for his weapons and other basic supplies somewhere. In fact, in that environment, the two cops in the opening scenes would more than likely have known him if not personally, by reputation. There aren't any true recluses in the outback! Everyone deals with someone sometime!
Then there are the various victims of Mick Taylor. I didn't bother to count, but there were at least ten dead or near-dead bodies in his "dungeon" and they had to have come from somewhere and been missed by someone. As was demonstrated in the real-life Lindy Chamberlain case, Aussie outback police aren't the sharpest knives in the box but they're not THAT dim!
The most realistic part of the whole story is during the 'game' Mick has with him where Paul (Ryan Corr), asks Mick to cut off the second finger from his other hand so that he could get that arm freed and thus be able to reach the hammer. But then, having pulled the ruse off (albeit at the expense of another finger) and belted Mick round the head, instead of finishing him off with as many more well-placed blows, he just stands there (with me screaming, "Hit him again!") until - as always happens in horror movies - Mick suddenly springs back to full action and takes control!
Then, at the end, we see Paul just floundering around in a street (God knows where!) with two fingers ground off and, as you'd kinda expect, somewhat delirious, being picked up by a couple of cops. Why did Mick leave him to be found at all? He didn't do it with any of his other victims so why this one? We don't get to see any of the police procedure after that but are told in the closing caption, that Paul was deported back to England as (basically) a raving lunatic. I'm sure he would have told the police everything that had happened before being referred to psychiatric people to repeat his story again so why didn't they follow it up? The stories would have matched and Paul even knew Mick Taylor's full name(because he told it to him) and, as I say, Taylor must have been known to them in the remote community where the story was set.
There were numerous other scenes throughout the film where the characters simply didn't do what real people in the same situations would have done but this review isn't a synopsis so I won't go into lengthy, boring detail. Suffice to say that, for much of the movie, I was muttering to myself (and wanting to scream out even more than I did), some instruction or 'prompt' to characters which, of course, they didn't do.
So when is someone going to make a movie like Wolf Creek where the characters behave remotely believably? As demonstrated in Silence of the Lambs, It is possible. Please, writers and directors, stop insulting our intelligence and give us better than this.
For starters, a cop is brutally murdered by the antagonist, Mick Taylor (John Jarrett) - pity they used the same name as Mick 'Crocodile' Dundee, especially when the two characters are so similar yet so different - and the 'evidence' - that is, the cop car with two bodies, one with his head half blown off, burned. In the 21st century, forensic experts would have easily identified what had actually happened and the outback would be teeming with detectives searching for the perpetrator within days. Then, as successive foreign tourist backpackers went mysteriously missing, connections would be made and, ultimately, suspects singled out. The damage to Taylor's vehicle would be analysed and his weapons matched with bullets etc.
In the movie, we aren't told exactly who Mick Taylor is other than that he's a 'pig hunter' but, in outback Australia, someone like him would be a well-known local character and, logic says, probably one with not too many friends. Nevertheless, he would have had to buy fuel and spares for his vehicles, ammunition for his weapons and other basic supplies somewhere. In fact, in that environment, the two cops in the opening scenes would more than likely have known him if not personally, by reputation. There aren't any true recluses in the outback! Everyone deals with someone sometime!
Then there are the various victims of Mick Taylor. I didn't bother to count, but there were at least ten dead or near-dead bodies in his "dungeon" and they had to have come from somewhere and been missed by someone. As was demonstrated in the real-life Lindy Chamberlain case, Aussie outback police aren't the sharpest knives in the box but they're not THAT dim!
The most realistic part of the whole story is during the 'game' Mick has with him where Paul (Ryan Corr), asks Mick to cut off the second finger from his other hand so that he could get that arm freed and thus be able to reach the hammer. But then, having pulled the ruse off (albeit at the expense of another finger) and belted Mick round the head, instead of finishing him off with as many more well-placed blows, he just stands there (with me screaming, "Hit him again!") until - as always happens in horror movies - Mick suddenly springs back to full action and takes control!
Then, at the end, we see Paul just floundering around in a street (God knows where!) with two fingers ground off and, as you'd kinda expect, somewhat delirious, being picked up by a couple of cops. Why did Mick leave him to be found at all? He didn't do it with any of his other victims so why this one? We don't get to see any of the police procedure after that but are told in the closing caption, that Paul was deported back to England as (basically) a raving lunatic. I'm sure he would have told the police everything that had happened before being referred to psychiatric people to repeat his story again so why didn't they follow it up? The stories would have matched and Paul even knew Mick Taylor's full name(because he told it to him) and, as I say, Taylor must have been known to them in the remote community where the story was set.
There were numerous other scenes throughout the film where the characters simply didn't do what real people in the same situations would have done but this review isn't a synopsis so I won't go into lengthy, boring detail. Suffice to say that, for much of the movie, I was muttering to myself (and wanting to scream out even more than I did), some instruction or 'prompt' to characters which, of course, they didn't do.
So when is someone going to make a movie like Wolf Creek where the characters behave remotely believably? As demonstrated in Silence of the Lambs, It is possible. Please, writers and directors, stop insulting our intelligence and give us better than this.