Wolf Creek 2 promises horror fans the best in Aussie nightmare-making

I've reviewed three Hollywood horror flicks already this year, and man, were they hurtin'. But things are looking up on the fright front with news out of Australia that director Greg McLean started lensing the sequel to his Wolf Creek last week.

For those sad sacks who might have missed it, Wolf Creek was one of the best horror flicks of 2005--if not the best.  It was about backpackers being waylaid by a vicious psychopath in the Australian outback, and starred the amazing John Jarratt as one nasty bit of business.

"Low-budget horror doesn't get much better than this," proclaimed one Vancouver-based film critic who clearly knows his stuff. The Australian movie-going public apparently agreed, as Wolf Creek was the number one film Down Under that year.

Jarratt is back in the sequel, and this time he's going all Croco-death Dundee on travelers played by Ryan Corr, Shannon Ashlyn, and Philipe Klaus. Here's the film company synopsis:

Lured by the promise of an authentic Australian holiday, backpackers Rutger, Katarina, and Paul visit the notorious Wolf Creek crater. Their dream Outback adventure soon becomes a horrific reality when they encounter the site's most infamous local, the last man any traveler to the vast and isolated region ever wants to meet; Mick Taylor (John Jarratt).

As the backpackers flee, Mick pursues them on an epic, white knuckled rampage across hostile wasteland. Only one will remain to be dragged back to his lair to witness the true magnitude of his monstrosity. And if the last man standing is to have any hope of surviving where no one has survived before, he'll have to use every ounce of cunning to outwit the man behind the monster, and become every bit as ruthless as the monster inside the man.

One of the cool things about Wolf Creek 2 is that--unlike some other recurring horror villains who will go unnamed--Mick Taylor did not have to rise from the dead to get another go at hapless backpackers. At the end of Wolf Creek he'd simply vanished into the Outback.

Bet he's really pissed off now.