Wolf Creek: an UnAustralian Story?

The 2005 Australian horror film Wolf Creek—a first feature for director Greg McLean—became one of the surprise international film success stories of that year. First screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2005, Wolf Creek was picked up for international distribution by the Weinstein-owned Miramax/Dimension Films for US$3.5 million, and was released through Dimension Films in the United States on 25 December 2005. The film was based on ‘actual events’—in particular, two high-profile true crime stories that have haunted the popular cultural imaginary of Australian society; firstly, the Ivan Milat hitchhiker murders from the early 1990s; and secondly, the violent abduction and murder of British tourist Peter Falconio in the Northern Territory in 1996, a case only recently resolved with Bradley John Murdoch convicted for his death and sentenced to life imprisonment in Darwin on 13 December 2005.