Cry Wolf (2005)
By: J.R. McNamara on April 14, 2008.
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| Universal (Australia). Region 4, PAL. 2.35:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 5.1, English DD 2.0. 86 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Stars: Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki, Jon Bon Jovi
Writer: Jeff Wadlow, Beau Bauman
Country: USA |
Wes Craven's hit film Scream has a lot to answer for.
It re-invigorated the suffering horror genre in the mid-nineties, and gave Fangoria something other than Batman or Jurassic Park sequels to report on, and then unfortunately, the inevitable happened.
After a run of decent films into the new millennium, with the occasional hiccup of course, we eventually got to the point where plagiarisms ran riot, and even worse, filmmakers started to try and find something completely outside of the box, which more often than not, backfired into a convoluted mess that tried to aspire to be more than just a horror movie, and failed.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the world of Cry_Wolf.
Cry_Wolf tells the tale of a group of seniors at a prep school who have a "liar's club", which is led by pretty, yet cool girl Dodger (Lindy Booth) who invites new boy Owen (Julian Morris) to be part of it. He is accepted into the group and they eventually try to play a bigger lie on the school, which involves the real murder of a local girl in the woods.
The group gets the entire school convinced that the "townie" who was murdered is the beginning of a killing spree by a serial killer, called "The Wolf", who dispatches his victims in a particular order, the group naming each other as the potential victims. Unfortunately, somebody doesn't take the joke and decides to make the "lie" a "truth", and very soon, Owen is receiving threatening IMs and emails from someone claiming to be "The Wolf".
Has someone decided to employ the liar's club myth to dispatch some teens, or is it all an elaborate hoax?
The biggest thing I didn't like about this film was its smugness. It seems to me that their was an air of arrogance about the whole film, and to be quite honest I am not sure if that was due to the attempt-at-a-Hitchcockian-thriller plot, or the fact that the cast all felt a bit snooty and full of themselves. Jeff Wadlow's acting direction has seemed to turn all the actors into unlikable, spoilt miscreants, instead of a bunch of school kids who have a life of opportunity. Oh, and by the way, Jon Bon Jovi acting? No! Playing the part of a SCHOOL TEACHER? Please... gimme a break.
On the plus side it is a nicely filmed piece. Wadlow's ability to make the set pieces and the entire cast look wonderful appears to be innate. Also the idea of actually using communication technology against the protagonists is something new, as usually horror films fall into the "Huh, my mobile phone doesn't get any reception out here" or "Oh no, someone has set fire to every mobile phone in town" cliché. |
| Video |
| A sharp, sexy, vivid, flawless image presented in 16x9 widescreen. Occasionally images in the night sequences are slightly hard to discern, but that may be stylistically deliberate. |
| Audio |
| The audio is presented in Dolby 5.1 and makes use of all the speakers to a quite dramatic effect. As a matter of fact, the best thing about this film is probably the crispness of the soundtrack. |
| Extra Features |
The "Interviews" feature a series of sound bytes with cast members including Lindy Booth, Julian Morris, Jared Padalecki, Sandra McCoy, Kristy Wu and co-writer/ director Jeff Wadlow and co-writer Beau Bauman. Boring, edited soundbytes that are a waste of DVD space.
Manual Labour is a short film by Jeff Wadlow which won the 2002 Extreme Filmmaking Competition where filmmakers have to go from script to screen in seven days. This is a quite funny short which shows that Wadlow has promise as a director... which is why he was given a chance with Cry_Wolf, I guess.
Wolves, Sheep and Shepherds is a series of auditions and rehearsals featuring Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jesse Janzen, Paul James (well, James' audition tape couldn't be found, which Wadlow explains over a still headshot of the actor), Sandra McCoy (who is quite possibly the reason jean shorts were invented...wow!!), Ethan Cohn and Kristy Wu.
There is also the trailer for the film amongst the extras.
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| The Verdict |
| A teen slasher flick that tries to be tricky, but ends up trying to be smarter than it actually is. Actually while trying to be smart, it comes across as smart-arse! I do have to admit that 1 of the 2 little Australia's in my score is basically for the gorgeous Lindy Booth in a school uniform! |
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