Wolf Creek, written and directed by Greg McClean, is the Blair Witch Project of the Australian outback. Capitalizing on the human fear of becoming lost in the wilderness, in this case a desert crater called Wolf Creek National Park, this graphic horror film exploits the handheld camera to capture the grotesque actions of Mick Taylor (John Janatt), a sadistic serial killer. When a hip twenty-something guy, Ben Mitchell (Nathan Phillips), and two hippie-ish girls, Cassandra (Liz Hunter) and Kristy (Kestie Morassi), take a road trip and their car breaks down, they have no choice but to accept help from Mick, an eccentric rural Aussie, who, like a spider, tows them into his nightmarish lair. Mick hunts kangaroos and hates tourists, translating his fetish for knives, shotguns, and other torture devices into a need to kill humans as if they’re vermin infesting his majestic landscape. Ample blood and gore leave the viewer feeling nearly as sick as the girls who are forced to watch each other die. Like Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, Mick Taylor is a savvy, calculating killer, despicable but psychologically fascinating. –Trinie Dalton