Wolf Creek is an Australian horror television series that aired on Stan. The show is a spin-off continuation of the continuity established in the movies, and is the third installment in the Wolf Creek franchise. John Jarratt, who portrayed Mick Taylor in the films, reprises his role for the show.
The first season of Wolf Creek consisted of six episodes and was released on 12 May 2016. The show was renewed for a second season of six episodes in February 2017, which was released on 15 December 2017.
Contents
Plot overview
Season 1
The Thorogood family, who is vacationing in Australia, is attacked and annihilated by Mick Taylor, save only Eve, their 19-year-old daughter. Eve thus embarks on a mission of revenge through The Australian outback to find and kill Taylor, helped by Det. Sullivan Hill.
Season 2
An outback safari bus, bringing a group of international tourists, is abducted by Mick Taylor who drugs the group and leaves them in the middle of the Southern outback desert, disabling (and later blowing up) the bus. The survivors go on a desperate journey through the outback, fighting for their lives as Taylor hunts them down.
Cast
Main
John Jarratt as Mick Taylor, a psychopathic serial killer who hunts his victims in the Australian outback.
Lucy Fry as Eve Thorogood, an American college student and recovering drug addict who vacations in the Australian Northern Territory with her family, survives Taylor's annihilation of her family, and goes on a hunter-becomes-hunted type of journey to track down Taylor.
Dustin Clare as Det. Sgt. Sullivan Hill, a police officer of the Northern Territory Police Force who crosses paths with Thorogood and eventually helps her taking revenge on Taylor.
Tess Haubrich as Rebecca Michaels, an American young entrepreneur who vacations in Australia with her husband Danny; she is part of the Outback coach crew that Taylor abducts.
Matt Day as Brian, a former psychiatric inmate from England, posing himself as a forensic psychiatrist, and another member of the abducted coach crew.
Recurring and guest
Deborah Mailman as Bernadette O'Dell, the owner of the Face of the Madonna Roadhouse near the Salt Lake Campsite in Southern Australia.
Maya Stange as Ingrid Thorogood, Eve's mother.
Damian De Montemas as Inspector Darwin, Hill's partner in the police.
Miranda Tapsell as Fatima Johnson, an agent of Hill's squad.
Robert Taylor as Roland Thorogood, Eve's father.
Matt Levett as Kevin Small, a man Eve meets in Kutyukutyu.
Richard Cawthorne as Kane Jurkewitz, the leader of a gang of bikers and robbers.
Rachel House as Ruth Ngata, a Maori truck driver.
Jessica Tovey as Kirsty Hill, Sgt. Hill's wife.
Eddie Baroo as Ginger Jurkewitz, Kane's brother.
Alicia Gardiner as Snr Cst Janine Howard.
Fletcher Humphrys as Jesus (Ben Mitchell), a resident of Rome, Queensland whom Taylor abducted in 1999.
Liana Cornell as Ann-Marie, a coworker and friend of Eve.
Felicity Price as Nina Webber, Oskar's wife.
Julian Pulvermacher as Oskar Webber, a German mining engineer and Nina's husband.
Jason Chong as Steve Cham, Johnny's boyfriend.
Episodes
Production
In October 2016, Jarratt suggested that Wolf Creek would be returning for a second season and a later film. Stan officially announced that Wolf Creek had been renewed in February 2017 and would be released in late 2017. Filming began in South Australia in July 2017. The six-episode second season saw John Jarratt reprise his role as Mick Taylor, alongside new cast members Tess Haubrich, Matt Day, Ben Oxenbould, Laura Wheelwright, Stephen Hunter and Chris Haywood. The story centres around Taylor meeting a coach full of international tourists – a complete departure from the first season's storyline which sees the show become an anthology style program, and won't see Fry reprise her role as Eve Thorogood. The second season was released on 15 December 2017.
Greg McLean returned as showrunner and director, along with Kieran Darcy-Smith and Geoff Bennett. Lisa Scott and Kerrie Mainwaring were producers for the series. Executive producers were Rory Callaghan, Greg Haddrick, Greg McLean, Nick Forward and Rob Gibson. Writers on the series were Nick Parsons, Shanti Gudgeon and Mark Dapin.
Reception
The series has received generally positive reviews. Nikole Gunn of Decider TV wrote, "It’s beautifully filmed with cinematography usually reserved for the 'Big Screen'" and that "It's chilling and unforgettable". David Knox of TV Tonight awarded the premiere four out of five stars and wrote, "If there's a box Wolf Creek hasn’t got checked, it's hard to find here".
Within the first four days of the first season being made available, more than 500,000 viewers sampled the program, including 40,000 subscribers who watched all six episodes.
Broadcast
Broadcast rights for Wolf Creek in North American and Latin American markets were acquired by Lionsgate, and the show aired in the United States for a limited time from 14 October to 18 November 2016 on the Pop channel, which Lionsgate held a stake in at the time. In the UK, the series aired on Fox in August 2016.