#Wolf Creek

[conciliumxx]

wolf creek 2 (2013)

directed by greg mclean

[seriousfic]

This is just the weirdest trilogy.

[doritofalls]

these guys are up in my shop now!

[goryhorroor]

horror sub-genres • backwoods horror

backwoods horror movies share many similarities with folk horror movies. except backwood horror movies tend to focus more on the socio-political divide between urban and rural ways of living.

[sevicia]

My sadistic highway freak collection has officially begun

[pragnificent]

One of the things that I find fascinating about genre horror is this phenomenon which I call "protagonist creep."

Protagonist creep is how, in a long-lived series with a lot of sequels or adaptions, the villain eventually becomes the protagonist character because he's typically the only character to carry over from film to film (or whatever type of media we're talking about). I like the term because it's got this neat double meaning: It's both the gradual process through which the antagonist creeps towards becoming protagonist, and also the end result is that you've got a creep for a protagonist.

And one of the main tactics writers use to engage in protagonist creep is by removing agency from the villain. When you have a character like Leatherface or Jason Voorhees, this is a pretty simple project because 1.) They have from the start been canonically intellectually disabled, which implies limited agency to begin with, and 2.) They tend to be acting on the behest of family members (Leatherface is terrified of his abusive family; Jason is driven - so much as he can say to be driven by anything - by his mother's need for revenge). These characters don't really need to be rehabilitated because they were never truly "bad," but rather are incapable of navigating their way out of bed situations. (This is all much truer of Leatherface than Jason, as the causality in Jason's case is incoherent).

When you have characters who are self-motivated and competent at what they choose to do, however, it gets a lot more complicated. Everyone here is probably familiar with the efforts that were made, both in the novels and NBC adaption, to make Hannibal... "more sympathetic" might not necessarily be the correct term, but it's all that's coming to me at the moment. More approachable. More comprehensible, more human. Tragic backstory that at least to some extent explains why he does what he does, heavily implied PTSD, growing focus around his desire towards a love interest, etc.

The Nightmare on Elm Street reboot played with the idea of rehabilitating Freddy Krueger, before yanking that back to say, "Nah, we made you think that he was unjustly accused and therefore became a vengeance ghost, but actually he did do all that shit. He absolutely did do that shit and we are going to tell you exactly what he did in way more detail than the original series ever did."

And then there's Mick Taylor, from the bizarrely extensive WOLF CREEK series. Who is a very strange example of the phenomenon because of the extent to which the writers, seemingly deliberately, refuse to let this particular creep become the protagonist.

Which, villain stan though I may be, I very much appreciate, because he is AWFUL. Like, he is absolutely The Worst that anyone can be in all The Worst Ways.

With one exception, the story never removes agency from Mick. They present a Mysterious Dead Little Sister, similar to Hannibal, but when the veil is finally pulled back we find that, rather than being a helpless child victim, Mick was responsible for what happened, causing that only the death of his sister but that of an innocent man.

The two season show goes in a very... unexpected direction, in that it seems to increasingly hint that Mick is supernatural in some way, and incapable of dying. This is the closest to removal of agency that we see in Mick, and it comes not only from him surviving unsurvivable wounds but also some of the things he says.

I'm paraphrasing, but particularly in season 2 he starts to say these morose things that imply that he's trapped. "We are the white men that were sent here for our crimes, and we don't get to leave until we've been punished." "I don't control what happens. Things just happen." And, above all, his framing of non-Indigenous people as an invasive species that needs to be eradicated. We also see Indigenous characters expressing the belief that he is some kind of bad spirit rather than a man.

None of this, I'll add, before I wander off, is logically consistent - either within the universe of the films or outside of it. There are two - no, three - things that are particularly fucking frustrating about framing Mick as someone forced to atone for the sins of colonialism by acting out violence against (primarily but not exclusively) other white people.

1.) He's primarily targeting tourists, rather than other Australians. Tourists, by definition, are not colonizers (although of course they can be part of the process of colonization). They are leaving - or rather, they would have left, had Mick not killed them.

2.) Women bear the brunt of Mick's violence, which is often sexual in nature. None of the people he targets deserve it, but there's something particularly galling about framing raping and torturing women for extended periods of time as some type of universe ordained balancing of the scales? Or something?

3.) He enjoys this shit. This is fun for him. He's having the time of his life.

I'm aware that the writers are aware of the tension between the story as it has progressed vs the implications of reimagining the character as some kind of ghost of colonialism, and I'm not accusing them of doing something wrong in trying to find a more complex motivation/explanation for the character's actions.

Again, I'm interested in that phenomenon of protagonist creep, and how writers might either lean into it or seek to subvert it. And Mick stays stuck in my head because the writers are definitely Doing Something here, but I struggle to parse it in a coherent way.

[houseof1000gods]

rewatched wolf creek last night and can't stop thinking about the aesthetics of it

[plutonic-rage]

My honest reaction

[snowed-leopard]

I forgot to post this lol I'm not into wolf creek but a lot of my friends are and when I was without power earlier this summer from storms I worked on this quite a lot to keep me calm and level. Forgot to show it til now. I basically said "gimme a screenshot of something to draw I need to or I'm gonna invert my organs" and the image below the cut was provided. I'm not the most happy with it but I'll live.

[janedoecreations]

Rusty Nail: "Well, well, well, look who we have here Mick. Seems like we both have our eyes on this one."

Mick Taylor: "Aye, she's a pretty little thing, ain't she? But she's mine to play with."

The Victim: "Um, excuse me, I don't think--"

Rusty Nail: (interrupting) "Shh, sweetheart. The grown-ups are talking."

The Victim: "But I'm not a possession to be--"

Mick Taylor: (interrupting) "Shut it, lass. The men are sorting this out."

Rusty Nail: "So Mick, what do you say we settle this the old-fashioned way? Winner takes all."

Mick Taylor: "Sounds like a fair deal to me. But just so we're clear, she's mine for the taking."

The Victim: "This is crazy! I never signed up for--"

Rusty Nail: (cutting her off) "We heard you the first time, darling. Now just sit back and enjoy the show."

Mick Taylor: "Aye, this will be a night to remember, won't it?"

The Victim: "Can we please just talk about this like normal--"

Rusty Nail: (overlapping) "No can do, sweetheart. It's our way or the highway."

Mick Taylor: (grinning) "And the highway leads straight to my domain, lass."

The Victim: (in disbelief) "This is like a bad horror movie come to life."

Rusty Nail: (chuckles) "Oh, you have no idea, sweetheart. The real fun is just beginning."

Mick Taylor: "Aye, prepare yourself for a wild ride, lass. It's gonna be bloody brilliant."

The Victim: (muttering under her breath) "I need to find new friends..."

[windshed]

[doritofalls]

lil horror guys keychain update

[grudgegolem]

Hmmm

[scansfrommagazinesandbooks]

[movies-tv-more]

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