WOLF CREEK 2 - 25th February 2014

"The name's Mick Tahlah - pleased to meetcha" is the greeting received with an ominous grin and a long Aussie drawl, and when you've heard those dulcet tones chances are you're in trouble and it's gonna end for you soon . . . and horribly!

John Jarratt is back on our screens in this very respectable sequel to the first instalment of the 2005 film that introduced us to true blue sadistic merciless psychotic unhinged outback serial killer Mick Taylor. With a much bigger budget this time around at AU$7M the action delivers more impressively with some notable set pieces. We know we're in for a ride from the opening sequence when Taylor is pulled up by two highway patrol cops who break the monotony of their stinking hot boring outback day by pulling him over for speeding, even though he wasn't. Nonetheless they taunt and deride Taylor and book him for speeding and driving an unroadworthy vehicle, and head off on their way laughing and joking. Seconds later and a shot rings out and the police drivers head explodes all over the windscreen, the car veers out of control, hits an embankment and crashes into a ravine with the other cop scrambling to get free only to be set upon by Taylor with, yes you guessed it - deathly consequences delivered clinically, and without mercy. And so our story begins to unfold.

Hapless foreign backpackers (in this case German) travelling around Australia without a care in the world visit Wolf Creek, camp out the night, and Taylor finds them - and here too the action is delivered swiftly, brutally, without compromise and terrifyingly. Enter English backpacker driving his Jeep down a deserted highway late at night and he stumbles on the badly beaten up German girl trying to escape Taylor who has already dispensed with boyfriend, and so the cat & mouse story is set and there can only be one victor!

John Jarrett has made this character his own and does a convincing job that sets him apart from his horror genre peers. Unlike Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, Freddy Kruger and Ghostface Mick Taylor does not hide behind a mask! Mick Taylor is your Aussie everyman - there is one living on every street, and he's the guy you'll say G'Day to on a Sunday when he's out mowing the lawn - the problem is that you don't know what lurks behind those eyes, or those drawn curtains in his house, or what thoughts are running around his head. This is what sets Mick Taylor apart and makes him all the more real, or the more scary, and his brutality all the more grounded . . . and we know these films are based on a strong element of fact! Mick Taylor has carved out his name at the top of the horror genre tree, and will be forever etched in our psyche thanks to his screen presence, and what we know he is capable of.

Sweeping scenes of the beautiful endless scorched Aussie outback break the tension - but not for long, because the hills have eyes and the blood runs deep out there when there is no one to hear you scream, or discover the trail of terror you leave behind, and this is the premise of the film in dispersed with unspeakable horror, tension and suspense. As well as John Jarrett, the hapless victims also deliver strong performances making you feel for what they are going through and the ultimate relief when death finally comes.

At 100 minutes this film moves along at a swift pace, and when the ending arrives it does so quickly and leaves you wanting more . . . as Mick Taylor walks off into his outback to terrorise once again.

A worthy sequel - a little light on true shocks, but maybe that's just because second time around we pretty much know what's coming. Nonetheless, inventive, convincing, well delivered but not such a good advert for our backpacking tourist industry!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-