By By Michael Gleason
In anticipation of the Halloween season, a plethora of horror films are being released. Slasher pictures, a staple of the genre, constitute a significant portion of the new crop. Cry_Wolf is an entertaining slasher film, but is not a memorable one. The hallmarks of a classic horror movie are missing. While there is enough to keep the audience interested, they will not be blown out of their seats.
Cry_Wolf follows the usual assortment of attractive (and expendable) high schoolers as they attend classes at a prestigious private prep school. After a murder is committed in the surrounding town, the school is filled with rumor and innuendo. Enter Owen Matthews (Julian Morris), the British troublemaker with a heart of gold, who (stop me if you’ve heard this) has been kicked out of several private schools for his reckless ways. He meets another troublemaker, a girl named Dodger (Lindy Booth) who has grown terminally bored of her surroundings and has a secret history. They decide to invent a killer named “The Wolf” (hence the catchy movie title), use the actual killing as a starting point and conceive a series of killings at a different school every Halloween. Their fiction is then sent by e-mail to every student on campus, sending the student body into paranoia. However, Owen’s story appears to be coming true; the actual killer has taken on “The Wolf’s” mantle and Owen and his friends are the only ones who can stop him.
This movie is yet another example of the flawed logic of horror screenwriters. The copious flogging of America Online’s Instant Messaging program is distracting. Hardly a minute seems to go by when these characters aren’t sending or answering instant messages. Sure, it’s a popular program, but these kids seem to do little else than IM each other. This emphasis is borderline comedic and really throws off the pace of the entire movie.
The killer’s costume looks sillier than anything else and inspires laughter instead of terror.
Hiring Jon Bon Jovi to star in a movie is a near-unforgivable sin. His presence also throws off the horrific mood the film seeks to create.
The members of the group easily fall into the character stereotypes that dog the genre: the promiscuous girl, the jock and the rebel, all make their unwanted presence felt. The plot has sizable gaps and the ending is based far more on coincidence than it should be.
Yet, the movie remains smarter than the average horror flick. Like the protagonist, the audience is never quite sure what is going on, which is an effective way of keeping their attention. The film’s well-directed and suspenseful sequences keep the proceedings entertaining.
The movie does a good job of conveying the suspicion that slowly begins to tear apart the group, and this adds a psychological edge so often missing in modern slasher movies. It’s impossible, then, to dismiss the movie as horrible. The film has just enough redeeming characteristics to spare it from the dust heap.
Cry_Wolf is, in short, a movie that only aspires to entertain, and it is foolish to criticize it for not being a classic. It is a well-designed and semi-clever thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end. This movie is recommended to horror fans that don’t need their movies to be deadly serious. Those who want entertainment would be well advised to check this movie out.
Final Grade: C+
Cry_Wolf will not thrill fans looking for a classic horror film, but still manages to be entertaining. (Image courtesy cinema.com)
(Image courtesy cinema.com)