Tis Spooky Season and here’s a round up of all my favorite Slasher Horror movies
Early autumn mornings, dew beading on grass blades, too hot for sweater weather yet (though in the tropics no weather is sweater weather), muted sunlight and the Moon like a mysterious witch’s rune hangs high in the sky, and my brain instantly dials into Spooky Season mode. And what’s a Halloween countdown without some good ole horror, gore, slasher fiction? A very dull, thrill-deficit Spookatober! So without much ado let’s get on with the debauchery!
Wolf Creek — The Movies (1&2)
TW : // Attempted Sexual Assault, Extreme Violence, Mutilation and Body Horror, Animal Cruelty, Violent Misogyny, Highly Disturbing Themes.
If you know me, you know I have to lead with the Wolf Creek series. The crowning glory of highway gore from the Land Down Under, Wolf Creek (2005) is a bloodletting main course with a (un)healthy helping of misogyny on the side. A rogue motorist Mick Taylor (played by John Jarrett, make of that what you will) is on a murderous binge, that preys on unsuspecting Hitch Hickers (usually foreign backpackers) as in this particular instance — happens to be a couple of British holidaymakers, bumming rides across the Australian outback. How the story unfolds from there, is anyone’s guess. A grueling one and a half hour and some minutes of unflinchingly realistic violence and the boulder of terror that settles in your stomach that ebbs and crests, because Wolf Creek is not mindless with its carnage- that’s not to say it isn’t that gory, because it absolutely is but unlike most slasher fiction, it doesn’t entirely rely on bloodshed for shock factor. Terror, sheer and unbridled pulses where there’s a brief lull in the traumatic violence. Mick’s beaten up, blue pick-up with its monstrous headlights and grunting engine that stalks the eerie outback highways in the dead of the night, always out on the prowl.
Wolf Creek — II (2013)
TW : // Attempted Sexual Assault, Extreme Violence, Mutilation and Body Horror, Animal Cruelty, Violent Misogyny, Highly Disturbing Themes.
In the returning installment (it’s technically a sequel but can be viewed as a standalone) Wolf Creek ups the ante. Mick Taylor returns, nuttier than ever, unleashing a carnival of bloodbath, seasoned in xenophobia and anti-immigrant undercurrents. A German couple camping out by the Wolf Creek gets ambushed in the dead of the night by our sadistic bogeyman who in an extremely gratuitous ultra violence show of spine-chilling hatred, kills the German man while his partner watches in unimaginable horror, as he slowly dismembers his lifeless body and in great painstaking detail which frankly I truly could’ve done without. The lone survivor of the two then, scrambles to get away, having been assaulted and wounded, somehow weasels out of Mick’s field and onto the highway, where she manages to flag down an unfortunate British tourist’s jeep. Mick ends up killing the German backpacker anyway, but takes his sweet time with the British Tourist who by some miraculous fluke manages to getaway alive in the end but not in one piece. In what seems to be the epilogue scene, the man, battered and nearly naked, comes to on a sidewalk in the city. And as if the streak of bad luck hadn’t had enough, the lone survivor is reported to have been later charged with the murders of the two German tourists and several other related disappearances. And to think that the Wolf Creek series are based on real life events! I guess Australian tourism must have come down with a bad case of heartburn following the release of these movies.
WOLF CREEK MINISERIES SEASON-1
An American family holidaying in the Outback in their RV are first taken hostage as they decide to camp out by the Wolf Creek -duh- for a stopover. It predictably escalates in a matter of minutes, and the only survivor that remains is their teenage daughter — unbeknownst to Mick who had shot her and witnessed her collapse into the gushing creek. With a bullet wound through her chest, she is somehow taken to the hospital by a cop whose own marriage is a bit rocky (failed to see the relevance of that here, but whatever). After having somewhat recovered, the girl sets out on a path of revenge, despite the law enforcement insisting that she go back home. After five long drawn-out episodes of her chasing leads the build-up is sufficient for the final segue into a high-tension showdown between her and Mick. The show ends on an ominous note, but at least for once, at least the survivor makes it out alive!
WOLF CREEK MINISERIES SEASON-2
A busload of tourists are hijacked by none other than our Highway Butcher — Mick Taylor — who goes absolutely ham this time around. Cue lustful bloodletting, mayhem and a debilitating cat and mouse chase that never ends well.
YOU’RE NEXT (2011)
A home-invasion? A poor homage to ‘ten little Indians’? Guess the jury’s out on this one. I’ll leave it to you to decide. You’re next is a Jennifer Lawrence starrer tried and tested horror slasher recipe. An estranged family on a getaway and a band of terrifying masked-killers, taking them out one by one. Suspicions run high, fear crackles between them like a live wire and no one’s sure if they’re gonna live to see another day.
SLASHER (DUH)
Netflix was slick to have picked up these network Halloween staples, all four seasons are about as gruesome and harrowing as you’d think. Faceless serial killers out on a grisly rampage as they take the people around them one by one while the ones remaining, scramble to make it out alive. Gratuitous violence with lots of gutting, mutilation and everything in between only for all of it to be pinned on someone (who would totally not fit the profile,if they were going for the shock element, hate to be that guy, but it falls pitifully flat) in the grand reveal in the final episodes.
HALLOWEEN (2018)
A Michael Myers classic retold, with female protagonists this time. It’s a bit removed from its gory origins, the violence is a lot subdued but the fear factor is played up to the nth. Micheal Myers returns to terrorize Laurie Strode, following a jailbreak that could have easily not panned out(but hey it’s a Halloween slasher flick, reason has no place here). It’s a slow burn that culminates into a basement fire with Myers trapped inside, supposedly ridding the town and Laurie of the mass murderer, but just as the credits roll, heavy breathing is heard — insinuating that Micheal Myers may not be dead after all.
