Wolf Creek - S01E05 Rome (2016)

Review

Eve decides its useless trying to find Mick in the outback, too much land, too few opportunities. She decides all animals must track to a local waterhole so takes a job at the local hotel in Rome, Western Australia, and prepares to wait for the psycho to make the scene. But trouble is brewing in the form of the outlaw drug dealers from Kutyukutyu who are homing in on Eve's whereabouts as they seek revenge for Kane's death. There's also persistent lawman Sullivan Hill who keeps tracking her down, and the escaped convict Johnny she meet earlier who gets a lift to Rome and performs some impromptu surgery.

Naturally Mick eventually makes his way to the hotel, which is filled with rugged Aussie blokes and scantily clad barmaids, and Eve seeks help from local law enforcement. Local police consist of a desk sergeant who looks like he hasn't seen physical effort for the last decade but is making an attempt to consume the entire local pasta supply. Eve rightly decides that local law isn't going to help but makes an agreement with Sullivan to lay a trap and kill Mick. Naturally things aren't going to be that easy, and while Eve is talking to local fruit cake Jesus Mick waylays Sullivan, stabs him, and I guess takes the lawman back to his den that drips blood. Eve has her own problems with the suddenly increased number of Kutyukutyu outlaws but gets help from an unexpected source.

Mortecai finally back after a year of personal upheaval, and bringing you my thoughts on the penultimate episode of season one of Wolf Creek. It's been a while since I've journeyed into the Australia outback, but to get into the themes and styles of the show I watched the first four episodes of Wolf Creek again before viewing the fifth episode, and it was time well spent. I had forgotten just how good Wolf Creek is, though I think just maybe there's a cookie cutter depiction of Aussie maleness which is probably not born out in reality. Still I currently live in a Country that presents Hollywood models as everyday people, and I'm just talking about the men!

The penultimate episode underlines how strong the first season has been

One of the great strengths of Wolf Creek generally and specifically in Rome is director Tony Tilse's use of his Outback locations. The towns and rural roadhouses that are used as sets are old, decaying, and look like that could collapse into the desert sands at any time. I'm not an expert in Australian rural culture but there's a feeling of general decay and timelessness. Tilse equally brings in the wide, open, and long vistas of the desert. There's an eerie feeling to the sparsely populated backroads with danger never far away, as various wayward tourists have discovered through the years. The Director captures the dawn and dusk perfectly, with that uniquely Aussie light that gives everything a sort of supernatural feeling.

The other major thing I noticed this episode was a high level of gore. We're talking hands being cut off, impromptu surgery, fingers being blown off by gunfire, and all manner of murder and mayhem which director Tilse isn't afraid to get down and dirty with. If you don't like your gore bloodied and pretty effective looking then you might want to shy away from all things Mick Taylor. I was actually surprised by the amount of blood letting in this episode, clearly the Stan streaming service is following U.S trends of not holding back as there's no compunction to keep prissy ass Advertisers happy with toned down saccharine content.

In what I've dubbed "the battle of Rome" Eve, with machine gun she picked up from a trader, takes on five marauders, but heck this chick could sleep through a herd of elephants rampaging through a china shop, as the crew from Kutyukutyu almost catch her by surprise. Eve may have laid out some traps for Mick but they sure do come handy in the battle. By the way I am digging writing "Kutyukutyu".

Speaking of Mick, the dude remains about ten steps ahead of Eve and Sullivan and anyone else out to cause him issue. While Eve and Sullivan set their trap and Eve goes to talk to Jesus, a hermit who escaped Mick's clutches and is mad as a March hare, Mick springs one of his own capturing Sullivan and whisking him away to dark purpose no doubt. Earlier Mick had sprung Eve following him, nothing appears to get past the outback psycho, and pretty much deduced what was going down by various members of the local community.

Local character Jesus, nickname real name Ben Mitchell, readers with long memories will remember he was the dude Mick Taylor toyed with in the original Wolf Creek (2005) movie. Nice shout out to the original movie here, and before anyone questions the validity of the insertion of the character Eve might have discovered Mick's camp due to the pencil drawings that adorn Jesus' cabin walls. I wasn't sure, some research was required, but Ben Mitchell did escape Mick's clutches in the original movie so two thumbs up for the continuity within the franchise.

Speaking of character injections was it just me or did Mick have Bernadette, the former proprietor of the Face of the Madonna Roadhouse, tied up in a cage? Have a distinct impression that was the case but to be honest it was slightly too dark to tell, so there's some homework for anyone that needs some. Oh heck I'm in a giving mood today and am going to do some penance for my tardy review of the first season by confirming whether or not Bernadette is up the creek without a paddle.

Director Tony Tilse takes it up a notch and locks and loads for the final episode of the season. If you want an episode that shows Mick Taylor as a predator waiting in the shadows then this is the episode to sink your teeth into, for sure I never want to visit the Aussie outback. The whole atmosphere is working to sink some chills into your backbone, the tension works its way out of the cracks in the decaying infrastructure of the sets, and I'm more involved with the characters than I really should be. This show is really worth spending some time with, and with season two having arrived you really need to be spending some quality time in Mick's world.