Aussie helmer Greg McLean made his feature debut with the "genuinely unpleasant" horror flick Wolf Creek. Blood and guts usually guarantees box office bucks, but it wasn't the case for this low-budget flick (headlined by a cast of relative unknowns). Still, its shocking imagery thrilled many critics while just as many felt that McLean was tastelessly exploiting real-life murder in the outback.

Up The Creek

McLean states his case in a meaty 50-minute Making Of documentary, saying, "The object of this film is purely to scare the crap out of the audience." He talks about stripping down the script to achieve the most visceral effect and his intention to "create an Australian bogeyman". Cameras venture to the outback where the director uses a guerrilla approach to filmmaking, eg strapping his cinematographer to the back of a moving van, then having him dangle from a rock face! There are also notes on production design, makeup and visual effects, plus the younger cast members moaning about the physical challenges. John Jarratt (who plays the obligatory psycho) is at times a genuinely scary bloke, remarking of his young co-stars, "They remind me of veal." Okaay...

In reality Jarratt is a thoroughly nice bloke, as evidenced in a 20-minute interview. He explains that he loved the script on first reading it, but had some reservations after meeting with whippersnapper McLean and hearing his proposal for shooting the film on high-definition video. He also makes the shocking revelation that he didn't wash for the duration of the shoot because he didn't want to smudge his fake tattoos and anyway he figured that his character would be "grungy and smelly". Oh, the horror...

Desert Storm

Producer Matt Hearn joins McLean and actors Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi for an intermittently interesting commentary on disc one. Hearn and McLean reveal they spent four months arguing about whether to claim the film is "based on a true story," but McLean never really justifies his position. Instead he talks mostly about, "constantly trying to expand the scope of the movie," by using inserts of landscape and flashy cutting techniques etc. Magrath and Morassi don't add much except to point out where they improvised their dialogue.

Only one of three deleted scenes is worth watching, but not while you're eating your lunch. It features Liz (Cassandra) stumbling upon the killer's lair and climbing into a well littered with human remains. An excerpt from Cry Wolf tops off the extras menu for a vomit-inducing taste of what else Optimum horror has in store.

Ultimately, this DVD does leave questions unanswered but the Making Of documentary does at least give fair insight into the making of a low-budget movie.

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