It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the “Wolf Creek” franchise inspired a TV series.
Consider the success of horror shows like “Stan Against Evil,” Eli Roth’s “Hemlock Grove” and the legendary continuation contained in “Ash vs. Evil Dead.”
“Wolf Creek: Season 1
” carries on the stories of Aussie serial killer Mick Taylor from the two-film franchise. Does it stack up to previous horror hits?
The Thorogood family is on a vacation in Australia to get away from it all in America and reconnect as a family. The clan happens across a friendly local who turns out to be the notorious Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) just setting up his prey.
He kills three of the four family members, leaving only daughter Eve (Lucy Fry) behind. Instead of heading back to the U.S., Eve decides to stalk Mick across a continent in search of a reckoning.
A big question comes up when a property makes the transition from one medium to another. Is it fair for one to rely on the other to make sense of the story? Or should the new entry stand on its own?
This review is going to cover the six-part “Wolf Creek” TV show from the perspective of those unfamiliar with the films.
Whether someone will enjoy the show depends on what they want in a horror series. If you crave blood, guts and evil people around every corner with basic human decency in short supply, “Wolf Creek” delivers.
However, if you prefer even a glimmer of hope, or purpose, and expect something more out of the horror genre, you’ll be greatly disappointed.
FAST FACT: “Wolf Creek” mainstay John Jarrett recently teased both a second season of the TV series and a third film in the franchise.
The show paints most of the people in Australia as only slightly more civilized than something you’d find in a “Mad Max” film in an effort to paint the show as Eve fighting against the world. Anyone showing compassion or decency tends to get butchered with glee along with the scum of the Outback.
Almost every time someone shows even the slightest hint of kindness toward Eve, they get slaughtered. While the point is to probably make Eve tougher and prepare her for the final showdown against Mick, it only reveals the show’s cruelty and dark heart.
Add in a hackneyed and thoroughly inappropriate love angle in the season’s finale, and “Wolf Creek” is simply an immature showrunners’ scream of “look how messed up this show is!” That gets old by the time we arrive at the end of the excruciating sixth episode.
If there’s any justice this will serve to be the end of the “Wolf Creek” TV saga. It wasn’t worth anyone’s time and money in the first place, and there isn’t evidence things will improve in the future.