WOLF CREEK opens in cinemas on the 3rd of November. It is based on actual events and sees three young backpackers experience a terrifying journey after being abducted in the isolated Australian Outback. WOLF CREEK is edited by ASE member Jason Ballantine.

Greg Mclean, the director of WOLF CREEK discussed making the film, saying:

“The idea behind WOLF CREEK has been around for about six years, when I wrote the first treatment for the film. It started with the notion of a terrifying, lone character inhabiting the Australian Outback. A character that reverses all of the clichés about the classic Australian bushman type, exemplified by ‘Crocodile Dundee’ and ‘Steve Irwin’.  Wholesome, bush skilled Larrikins with a naïve charm and childlike view of the world. These are two of our most popular cultural exports – but what if we created a character who exemplified the darkest, most sinister and monstrous aspects of this essential Australian archetype. Essentially creating a uniquely Australian ‘Boogieman’. As the script has developed a number of ‘real’ Aussie Boogiemen appeared. Figures that were so horrific it was as if they and their crimes sprang directly from the imagination of some writer whose object was to scare us witless, and make certain those Sunday afternoon drives out into the Australian country-side stopped altogether.”

“It was my intention to make WOLF CREEK an unforgettable, shocking and genuinely scary movie that is also distinctly Australian…  I was influenced by certain elements of Dogma 95 (economy, focus on script and performance for cinematic effects) and my favourite elements of the classic horror movies (strong central storyline, few characters, an isolated setting, a unique and unforgettable monster) and decided (probably subconsciously) to mesh them together to create Wolf Creek. "

The film does contain some confronting sequences of violence. Mclean is quick to point out that the use of violence in the film was carefully thought through. “The movie does contain explicit and intense scenes, they are disturbing. However the film does explore the dull, mundane nature of violence, as the film is in some ways a voyeuristic journey into a world of pure evil. I believe it’s the artist’s job in some form to ‘not look away’ from our world and the human experience: both in its blackest elements of suffering and it’s brightest moments of joy. And while it may be confronting at times, I feel it is important to expand the audience beyond what they would experience in their everyday lives. And cinema is a great medium in which to do that, as the audience is never actually in danger. We get to look into the horror with the reassurance in the end that, ‘it’s only a movie’.”

WOLF CREEK stars John Jarratt, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi and Nathan Phillips

After being involved in films including BABE, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2, MOULIN ROUGE, STAR WARS (episodes 2 & 3) and HAPPY FEET (yet to be released) -  Wolf Creek is Jason’s first feature as sole editor.