First Big Sundance Success: WOLF CREEK, horror suspense break-out'

Hey Folks, Harry here with the latest going on with Dimension Films and this year's Sundance. As with every Sundance since 1997, I'll be sitting it out - actually, I'll be in Boston during one of the Sundance weekends, and have to miss it this year. However, hopefully we'll hear from a good deal of you folks out there in regards to how the fest is going this year. Also, typically I end up getting to see a selection of the Sundance films in advance here in Austin and will try to point some of you good folks at some of the good stuff to catch.

Today, the trades reported that Dimension forked over $3.5 million for an Australian Horror-Suspense film entitled WOLF CREEK, based upon an infamous serial killing case in Australia known as 'The Backpacker Murders'. My understanding is the film has been taken from elements of these murders, and is not in fact a recreation of them. However, from what I hear - the film is flat out scary as hell and doesn't drop the ball in the last act like several indie horror films of late. The preemptive buy on Dimension's part is very very smart. The recent success of indie horror to grab a decent box office - even from drek like DARKNESS - shows there's a legitimate thirst for blood at the box office.

Add to that, just the universal fear factor of the backpacker trip gone bad... I'd have to say, the best backpacker horror film I've seen was AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON - but then, that only used the backpacker motif for the set up. Here, where you literally are going to have a pure - out in the middle of nowhere - no transportation, phones, any means of getting help terror... Well, to give you an idea of the horror that WOLF CREEK could be unleashing up in the frozen ski town of Park City, check out this link: CLICK HERE. That is the true story of what happened to the backpackers that were hunted, abused sexually and then shot, bludgeoned, butchered and just destroyed. This is the sort of real horror that can be profoundly disturbing depending on how it is handled. We'll hear more this Sundance.