Netflix original action thriller Apex racked up 2.54 billion minutes viewed following its late April release, claiming the number one spot on the streaming service’s Global Top 10 English movies list. Starring Academy Award-winner Charlize Theron, Welsh star Taron Egerton, and Australian star Eric Bana, the film follows a grieving woman who seeks solace in the wilderness and becomes ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a serial killer.
Why Australia’s Outback Became a Global Streaming Hotspot
Director Baltasar Kormákur shot Apex in Australia after initially setting the script in the United States. Kormákur stated that the film needed a warm climate at a specific time of year.
Classic Australian Outback and Bush Thrillers
Below is our list of top 10 movies set in Australia’s creepy outback:
- 10.
- 9. It’s a warning to be careful about who you run into on the Nullarbor.
- 8. The story saw local landowner Alan Rickman using a hired gunman to exterminate the local Indigenous population.
- 7.
- 6. Razorback (1984): The movies love it when animals go rogue. Sometimes it’s a shark, or killer bees, or a bear, a crocodile, or piranhas. But in the Australian outback it’s a wild pig, a razorback. It has all the ingredients of a classic genre film in the Ozploitation tradition.
- 5. They are things that local filmmakers might, perhaps, take for granted.
- 4.
- 3. Just a mysterious rock. And not even an extra chapter of the original novel released decades later satisfactorily explained what happened.
- 2. Which is why it is so high on this list. And about that film the less said the better.
- 1.
Did you know?
Wake in Fright was renamed Outback internationally.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Join the Conversation
Have you watched Apex on Netflix yet, or explored any of the classic Australian outback thrillers on our list? Share your thoughts and favorite bush-setting movies in the comments section below.