 The Christmas holiday may not appear to be the most propitious -- or seemly -- time of the year to release a horror flick, but Dimension/The Weinstein Co.'s Wolf Creek performed adequately in its debut over the weekend, earning an estimated $5.9 million. The Australian-made film was picked up at the Sundance Film Festival this year for $3.5 million. It received wildly mixed reviews. Jessica Reaves in the Chicago Tribune found much to praise about the film. "As horror movies go, this is a pretty good one, at once a tense, visceral and tightly woven tale," she wrote. Lou Lumenick in the New York Post called it "gorily effective." Manohla Dargis in the New York Times gave director Greg McLean high marks for keeping "his storytelling tight and the plot admirably pared down." Likewise Janice Page in the Boston Globe writes that McLean's "tight direction deserves credit for keeping tension and dread ever-present." On the other hand, Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times wrote that "McLean admirably attempts to breathe some life into the genre by taking his time to get to the gore, but rather than yielding interesting characters it merely deflates the suspense." Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News commented: "Just because Dimension considered Greg McLean's nasty exploitation flick worthy of their time and money doesn't mean it deserves yours." And Mike Clark concluded in USA Today: "There's no substitute for bad taste. And this one has it double-barreled." |
