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http:\/\/www.rue-morgue.com\/magazine\/434-issue-144<\/a><\/p>\n by Alison Lang<\/p>\n Rue Morgue<\/em> #144, May 2014, p.50<\/p>\n In 2005, a little Australian movie called Wolf Creek<\/em> made a sizeable splash in theatres worldwide, grossing over $27 million during its box office run.<\/p>\n Set against the barren backdrop of the Outback, its unique take on genre conventions and unrelenting violence kept horror fans rapt. It also divided critics, many of whom erroneously lumped it with the likes of Saw<\/em> and Hostel<\/em> as yet another example of hyper-gratuitous torture porn.<\/p>\n Nine years later, Wolf<\/em> Creek<\/em> still holds up as a modern-day masterpiece of Ozploitation. This is due in no small part to the film\u2019s antagonist: the affable and relentlessly depraved bushman, Mick Taylor, played with jocular menace by John Jarratt.<\/p>\n Director Greg McLean and co-scriptwriter Aaron Sterns have brought the popular character back in Wolf<\/em> Creek<\/em> 2<\/em>, which hits North American theatres in mid-May, and they\u2019ve delved even further into Mick\u2019s backstory by releasing the first two books in a Penguin Australia-commissioned series of original novels. Sterns was tapped to write the first installment \u2013 titled Origin: Wolf Creek Book 1<\/em> \u2013 shortly after he and McLean had completed the screenplay for Wolf<\/em> Creek<\/em> 2<\/em> in 2007.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that I\u2019d just written the sequel means I knew Mick better than anyone, save for Greg and John Jarratt,\u201d Sterns says.<\/p>\n The book begins with a young Mick starting his first job as a jackaroo (trainee) on a sheep ranch. It\u2019s grim work, and as Mick endures the taunts of his superiors, fragmented memories of a horrific childhood come lurching back to him. You almost feel sorry for the guy, until a few prominent details reveal themselves \u2013 namely, his tendency to fly into near-blackout rages, a growing penchant for sado-masochistic sex, and the matter of the mysterious childhood death of his sister. The story grows more complicated as we realize Mick is an unreliable narrator with multiple layers that peel back, slowly revealing the extent of his corruption.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it would be interesting to test,\u201d reveals Sterns. \u201cCan we still have an interest in this character, even when we already know what he becomes? It\u2019s one of those back-engineering problems that is quite fun to work with. Like the Star Wars<\/em> prequels, in Revenge of the Sith<\/em> we know what Darth Vader becomes. The key is to explain what happens to get him there and keep it interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n While Wolf<\/em> Creek<\/em> 2<\/em> embraces the comedic aspects of Mick\u2019s Aussie buckaroo persona, the Origin<\/em> novel is unrelentingly dark in comparison, with no moments of respite for any of its ruined characters. Sterns \u2013 a former instructor of gothic and subversive fiction at Deakin University \u2013 says the bleak tone is reflective of his own beliefs about what makes effective horror.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of horror is quite flippant,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s about body counts, the blood, people in pain, racking up the little thrills of seeing someone die. There\u2019s no impact there, no understanding of the toll that is paid. It\u2019s horrible. What always concerned me is that each person who dies in a horror film \u2013 that\u2019s an entire world. Those deaths have an emotional cost in reality, and you should feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n Amongst other influences, Sterns cites Jack Ketchum \u2013 another novelist who crossed over into film collaboration with 2011\u2019s The Woman<\/em> \u2013 as a profound inspiration when it comes to creating unflinching, haunting prose.<\/p>\n \u201cWith a writer like Ketchum, the actual writing is as strong as possible,\u201d says Sterns. \u201cHe\u2019s trying not to let you off the hook. And he sets up the different characters so well that when everything goes down, you feel everything. He doesn\u2019t just set something up and then quickly jump away to make it easy on the reader. He stays with it, and it\u2019s horrendous.\u201d<\/p>\n Origin<\/em> is definitely a wrenching reading experience, but it is also a significant achievement as a standalone Australian gothic novel, with a surprisingly literary sensibility that elevates the material. (The second novel, written by Australian horror writer Brett McBean, finds Mick in Vietnam, and may lead to four more titles to complete the series.) It\u2019s hard not to be equally engrossed and appalled by Mick\u2019s downward spiral \u2013 and it\u2019s impossible to look away.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to get across a sense of Mick\u2019s tragic inevitability \u2013 the fact that he still has so much darkness to get through,\u201d says Sterns. \u201cThe horror I love doesn\u2019t really give you answers or endings, and there is no end. The experience just stays with you: a lasting dread.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\nA LASTING DREAD<\/h2>\n
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