Thursday, July 1, 2010

DIRECTORS TO KEEP AN EYE ON

GREG MCLEAN:

Broke onto the scene in 2005 with what was in my opinion, the best horror effort of the decade with WOLF CREEK: the tale of three young adventurers who are taken captive by a homicidal woodsman in remote Australia. An unrelenting nose-dive into abhorrent horror that is both stylish and effectual without being pretentious. Exhibits gumption in its opening third which functions to develop relations among its characters before they are tossed into extemporaneous survival mode. It's everything the vapid, illogical Hostel hoped to be.

Mclean's sophomore effort, ROGUE, features an American journalist joining forces with an Aussie tour guide to do battle with a man-eating crocodile. Surprisingly good of its kind, Rogue is a functional creature-feature fashioned by an enthusiastically devoted hand. Its mawkish nature sparks a bittersweet longing for all things eighties.