Stan Have Announced A New ‘Wolf Creek’ Pop-Up Bar Which Sounds… Not Great

In a couple of weeks, Stan will premiere the new Wolf Creek miniseries which sees the return of murderous bushman Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) and presumably, a slew of new and horrific deaths in the isolated wilderness of Australia. To celebrate, Stan is “bringing Wolf Creek’s rugged outback setting to the urban centres” of Melbourne and Sydney by building “fully-immersive” Wolf Creek-themed bars, where fans can reflect on some of their favourite Mick Taylor moments.

The bars, which will go up in Melbourne’s Federation Square and Sydney’s Martin Place, will feature a signature drink called ‘Mick’s Bitter’ at “outback prices” and on opening night, punters will get to meet the cast of Wolf Creek, including John Jarratt. Merchandise will also be available to purchase.

Pretty spooky premise for a bar, eh? Who doesn’t like feeling lightly stressed while enjoying a beer! I remember when I went to the Death Eater part of the Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studio, boy did that give me chills! Except Wolf Creek is more than your average scary movie because it’s partially based on true events.

It’s been acknowledged by Wolf Creek writer and director Greg McLean, that both the first and second Wolf Creek films draw from the real-life 2001 murder of British tourist Peter Falconio and the assault of his girlfriend Joanne Lees by Bradley John Murdoch, as well as the serial ‘Backpack Murders’ by Ivan Milat in the 1990s. When the original Wolf Creek came out, it was close enough to Bradley John Murdoch’s story that the Northern Territory court placed an injunction on the film’s release to prevent it from affecting his case.

It seems a bit weird that a film that was inspired by real, terrifying events is being made into a quirky little bar (it’s also a spectacularly fucked up movie; one I can’t imagine wanting to be reminded of while I’m sipping a $5 shandy) but we’ll soon see if Wolf Creek fans will embrace the pop-ups with open arms. We’re running out of Seinfeld cast members, after all.

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The Wolf Creek Roadhouse bar will be in Federation Square, Melbourne from May 5-8 and in Sydney’s Martin Place from May 11-14. Wolf Creek will premiere exclusively on Stan on May 12.