10 Spine-Chilling Horror Movies Set In The Desert
1. Wolf Creek
Travelling to the heart of the Australian Outback, three backpackers find themselves stranded at the landmark Wolf Creek crater. Salvation seems at hand when they are rescued by the genial Mick Taylor (John Jarratt, in his signature role).
Driving them back to his camp where he offers to fix their vehicle, Taylor reveals his - barely concealed - sinister side when he drugs the kids and holds them captive for his own sick amusement.
Kristy and Liz (Kestie Morassi and Cassandra Magrath) become playthings in Mick's demented games. The Australian outback is the hellish backdrop to their desperate fight for survival. Captured, tormented, escaping and then brutally executed (in the film's now-infamous 'head on a stick' sequence), Kristy and Liz suffer a miserable fate at the hands of Mick Taylor.
That the film is (very loosely) based on a true story makes its grim exploitation feel even more depressing and... well, exploitative.