Your favorite maniac from the Outback is back! But does an expanded look at ‘Wolf Creek’ help or hinder the material?

Let’s begin this with the giant caveat that I’m not a big fan of the original film, Wolf Creek. I think it falls into the same trappings that a lot of “horror” from that time during the early 2000s do, where it amounts to torture porn and not anything higher. That being said, I was excited to watch this television adaptation of the film series (there’s a sequel) simply because I was hopeful that a serialized approach to the horror would give me a deeper appreciation for the source material.

Well, it’s about the same.

This six-part series continues the relentless slayings of Australian Outback serial killer, Mick Taylor, who John Jarratt continues to play with delicious glee. He’s like a kid in a machete store. Jarratt continues to give it his all and it’s clear that he’s got a real love for this sadistic monster. Rather than this just being a series that chronicles Mick’s murders, it wisely introduces Eve, a compelling Final Girl who loses her family at Mick’s hands. Accordingly, the show adopts a split perspective as Mick continues on with his laissez faire destructive lifestyle and Eve tries to track the bastard down and get revenge for what he did to her.

Eve is by far the best thing to come out of this series and Lucy Fry does a wonderful job in the role. This is a character that you actually care for who is smart, doesn’t take bullshit, and knows how to take care of herself. There’s a certain inevitable lack of suspense in a set-up like this one where you know that Eve isn’t going to die before her confrontation with Mick, but Eve being a capable character that can kick ass is just as likely for her survival. At the same time, she could have had two or three friends with her—or met up with some people on her journey—that could have acted as fodder for Mick and increase the tension a little bit in their relationship. The show also does a great job at making Eve appropriately flawed too, with a steady addiction to painkillers and other vices to flesh out the character. She also goes through a steady trial by fire where Mick is not the only one after her, forcing her to undergo some trauma and harden up by proxy. In a lot of ways the series acts as her training for her inevitable showdown with Mick.

As Eve is investigating murders and trying to figure out where Mick is, we get to see Mick moving through the Outback in his own element, plaguing areas as he drives through. There’s such a bluntness to the violence in this world, like it’s nothing at all, and it just all happens without flinching. Even to Eve. The execution of her family is perhaps the most brutal, numb killing of the whole series and it’s just thrown at you. The final episodes especially turn up the horror aspect of Mick’s rampage with there being some particularly gruesome images that shouldn’t leave you any time soon. There’s an added dimension to all of this where the police are also on the scene trying to catch Mick too, with it all amounting to this interesting hot pursuit and cat-and-mouse game between everyone involved. This police angle might not exactly be necessary, and it might even de-personalize Eve’s story here, but it’s again a realistic dimension present here. There’s no denying that the police would be a presence in all of this, so why not play with that?

The series does decide to gives us Mick’s backstory (in the one episode that Wolf Creek films’ writer/director Greg McLean helms), explaining how he has become as callous as he is. Whether we needed to get this or not, it’s perfectly serviceable material, but it’s pretty much what you’d expect it to be. If we are going to get this glimpse into Mick’s past, I’d at least prefer it to be something rather than the typical serial killer origin story. I suppose it’s one that rings true, which is why we do see it so often, but in that case, spend that time on something else. Show us Mick’s first kill instead. There are still other formative moments in his path to homicidal legend.

The series also boasts some straight-up gorgeous cinematography too, that at times looks like stuff from right out of Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul’s Albuquerque. It’s a dream to look at a lot of the time, even if there are some horrific things going on beneath the glowing skylines.

The thing is, this is probably exactly what a Wolf Creek series should be. It follows the blueprint of the movie perfectly, introduces a strong new protagonist that you actually care about, and still expands upon the source material in its own way. While a lot of this falling flat on me seems to be for the same reasons that I wasn’t raving about the film while other people were, I think I can still objectively see when something is doing compelling or flawed storytelling. Wolf Creek certainly meanders and wastes a lot of time that could be applied in many more productive ways. A six-episode series cannot allow any fat. This padding slows down any momentum that Mick or Eve are building and is what ultimately has the series falling short in the end. I’m highlighting a lot of what works in this series, but it doesn’t change that in spite of these things I was still bored a number of times throughout the show.

What’s frustrating here is that I think there’s a great deal of merit to taking a horror film and turning it into a limited six-episode series. A new film in the Jeepers Creepers saga is finally happening much to its fans excitement, but can you imagine that being done as something like this instead? Or what about Hellraiser? I’d even be more into a Hostel or Cabin Fever limited series than more features in those franchises. If anything I hope this exercise opens the doors for more niche horror to go this route. Even if it has to remain foreign horror in order to satisfy certain tax credits or international TV stations, there’s still titles like The Loved Ones or Berberian Sound Studio that fit the bill.

Wolf Creek is a mixed bag of a series that honors up Greg McLean’s original films in a way that will satisfy you if you were a fan of the movies. The series triumphs off of letting Jarratt loose as Mick and embracing the character, while also creating a worthy adversary for the villain. The violence of the films remains, but an unfocused narrative that drags in areas holds it back from the adrenaline ride that it wants to be.

This review is based on all six one-hour episodes of Wolf Creek