Review“And they only just found that girls body today because it was dragged through the woods by a wolf.” – Regina.Okay first up loved this one. Kept me guessing, kept the curve balls coming, and was one damn fine movie to boot. About the best slasher released this century thus far, and a welcome return to what powered the sub genre. Basically you have your identified victims and someone unknown stalking them, time to get the pipe and Deer Stalker hat out and go Sherlock Holmes on the movie’s arse. Unfortunately l was completely wrong in who l thought did it, and the final ten minutes threw curve ball after curve ball at me. I struck out on three legit numbers right over the sweet spot. Writer Beau Bauman can pitch for my home team anytime he wants too. Bad boy Owen, having been thrown out of about every public school in the UK, gets sent to a private up market school in rural USA. Naturally being the new kid on the block he falls in with the wrong crowd. Basically a group of students who seem to have the motto “Avoid suspicion. Manipulate your friends. Eliminate your enemies.” The group are into a game of “colonel mustard did it with a crowbar in the library”. Naturally this becomes boring so they decide to play the game with the whole campus. A townie has been shot in the woods during the prologue, and they invent a serial killer called the “Wolf” who has gone on rampages through other Private Schools in the past, starting with shooting some one in the woods. Owen emails the entire school body and the rumours start to fly. When Owen starts receiving IMs from someone who claims to be the “Wolf” it becomes more than a game. As the body count starts to mount both the Audience and Owen are left to try and figure out who the killer is. Director Jeff Wadlow knows how to put a movie together, and keeps the tension running from start to finish. The prologue is an endurance test in itself and is filmed so tightly that you just know you’re in for a good time. We get some unknown chick fleeing through very dark woods, chased by some dude with a flashlight. The whole scene is shot with only the flashlight giving glimpses of what’s going down. Just when we think the chick has escaped, the dude uses a mobile to phone her number. The cell ring gives her position away and bam all over red rover. Nice plot device, we know the dude knows his victim and in a brief glimpse of the other names in his cell phone we know he knows the other potential victims as well. Cool, save time let your fingers do the stalking. Wadlow has slow engrossing camera movements happening, goes for some odd angles as required, and even ramps it with some quick shooting that is not overly done or used as the sole shock tactic. The Director is filming a slasher but goes for a more suspense/thriller style composition. We get to know our characters and are hoping some of them will get to the end credits. Blood and gore is strictly off camera as this isn’t the movie’s focus. Bauman and Wadlow throw plenty of suspects at us to keep the guessing game going. Is it the fat dude who got thrown out of the game, or the maintenance dude who seems to take more interest in one of the chichas than is healthy, or the media teacher who seems slightly too good to be real, or indeed is it Owen himself going psycho killer on us? Each is plausible as we just don’t know what’s going down or why. A couple of other things in the script had me grinning with evil delight. Good use of modern technology for starters. Besides IMs, we get email, cell phones, and the way past gnarly idea of a chick taking a photo of herself, prior to getting into the shower with the psycho right behind her, then forwarding the photo to her boyfriend. Magic time right there friends and neighbours. Equally the whole “boy who cried wolf” is wrapped up in a nice slasher present for us. Owen works out something is going down, but nobody is going to belief him or his friends. Dude you can trace those emails the “Wolf” is sending you, just grab a couple of nerds from the computer lab to help you out. Julian Morris (Owen) looked like a teenager and hammered the role through the wall. I was with him from start to finish. Nice work bro! Lindy Booth (Dodger) hit the sassy and emotional requirements of her role out of the ballpark. She was on in this movie and will no doubt score some more roles on the strength of it. Jared Padalecki (Tom) was okay as the dude member of the troop but didn’t overwhelm me entirely with his screen time. Jon Bon Jovi (Rich Walker) managed to not make me puke, but l had a bucket right next to the remote just in case. Michael Wandmacher presented an economical and strangely chilling score, which about kept up with what Wadlow was aiming for. We also get some half decent rap, a bit of techno, and the odd rock/pop number happening. If you don’t mind the more intelligent end of the slasher pool then dive right into Cry_Wolf. Not a lot of blood and gore going down, but the movie doesn’t need it as it romps along without resorting to a lot of cheap schlock scare tactics. This ain’t no Jason Voorhees song. I enjoyed, it kept me guessing, and the ending paid off my investment in the movie with a high return. Probably isn’t going to appeal to the teeny booper more gore the better set, but heck we don’t review a lot of the movies they think are cool anyways. If after a movie where you can play guess whodunit then this is the movie for you. There’s enough hints thrown into the first and second acts to get you where you want to be, of course those hints might just be telling lies. Anyone up for a game of “Wolf”?
ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ... Intelligent slasher along the April Fools Day road.
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