Netflix's latest survival thriller, Apex, starring Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton, has climbed to the top of the streaming service's charts. However, despite its gripping plot, the film is not based on a true story, according to creator Jeremy Robbins.
The film follows Sasha (Theron), a grieving rock climber who tests her limits in the Australian wilderness, only to be hunted by a ruthless serial killer named Ben (Egerton). Robbins, who wrote the screenplay during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, drew inspiration from two classic films: the 1972 thriller Deliverance and Meryl Streep's 1994 film The River Wild.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Robbins said: 'Deliverance and The River Wild were such touchstones in my childhood and high school life that I was absolutely writing towards them. So I very proudly embrace those comparisons to two movies I've loved immensely for most of my life.'
While Apex is not based on real events, Egerton's character shares traits with infamous serial killers. Australian murderer Ivan Milat, known as The Backpack Killer, abducted backpackers in New South Wales forests in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and inspired the 2005 horror film Wolf Creek. Another killer, Robert 'Butcher Baker' Hansen, flew victims to remote Alaskan wilderness areas and hunted them down.
