All hail the Terrifier. Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3, the massive, dense, yuletide slasher sequel to both the original Terrifier and 2022’s box office sensation Terrifier 2, has replicated the second film’s success. Against all odds, Terrifier 3 topped the weekend box office, snagging an estimated $21.5 million over the four-day weekend of its release. The success is all the more remarkable since Terrifier 3 was released unrated, practically unheard of, and arrived with little conventional marketing.
The Christmas carnage is the hottest horror property around right now, though weirdly, it reminds me of another slice of yuletide terror that shocked audiences all the way back in 2005. I’m talking about Greg McLean’s Wolf Creek, now streaming free on Prime Video and Tubi.
Per Prime Video: Backpacking friends break down in the Australian Outback and become the prey of a sadistic bushman killer whose offer of help becomes hell on earth.
Now, to be clear, Wolf Creek isn’t strictly speaking a Christmas horror movie, though it did incredulously released on over 1,700 screens in the United States on Christmas Day. Distributed by Dimension Films, the ostensibly true slasher was met with considerable controversy given the extreme nature of its brand of early aughts horror. Critics at the time likened the film to nothing more than tasteless exploitation (head on a stick, good gosh), and contemporaneous audiences awarded the film a rare “F” CinemaScore in post-screening surveys.
Wolf Creek, like the following year’s Black Christmas slasher, sought to counter-program the holiday season, no differently than Terrifier 3. And, sure, Terrifier 3 released in October, not December, though there’s little doubt it will retain its legs to become something akin to a new holiday horror classic. For me, it will sit right alongside Wolf Creek as a subversive holiday season watch. In fact, between the two, I’d argue Wolf Creek is probably the more extreme of the two.
Greg McLean’s exploitation shocker may not revel in quite as much over-the-top carnage as Art the Clown, though its stark realism and feigned (yet effective) true story origins are enough to render it a truly sick, aggressively unpleasant cinematic experience. Nihilistic to its core, I respect the decision to release it stateside during what it supposed to be the happiest season of the year. It won’t come anywhere close to putting you in a particularly festive mood, but with the holiday season forthcoming, I think it’s about time everyone revisit one of the early 2000s’ grimmest, most shocking horror movies.
What do you think? Are you a fan of Wolf Creek? What did you think of its sequel? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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