Benutzerrezensionen

A rural community is shaken by gruesome killings in the woods by what appears to be a werewolf (the tracks near the bodies shows four paw prints that soon become two, and then disappear); former hunter-turned-writer Peter Graves assists the local sheriff in unraveling the mystery. Not-bad TV-made thriller has interesting subjective camera-work along with the proverbial fog in the woods and snarling sound effects. Graves is solid, as usual, and has a few intense scenes with maniacal 'old friend' Clint Walker, but it's too bad writer Richard Matheson felt the need to cover all his bases plot-wise. The more explanations we get in the finale, the more ridiculous it all begins to seem. Director Dan Curtis also produced, in what appears to be a case for The Night Stalker. Robert Cobert is responsible for the erratic music score.

Director Dan Curtis had an impressive track record after developing the memorable character of Carl Kolchack, played wonderfully by Darren McGavin, in both "The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler", and also the one-off "The Norliss Tapes" with Roy Thinnes.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have the same success here, though it does start off strongly with an innocent motorist being killed by a mysterious creature(a werewolf, perhaps?) Several more murders occur, until the twist at the end which is...underwhelming, to say the least. Peter Graves and Clint Walker face off as uneasy friends on opposing sides, since Walker's big game hunter is coldly indifferent to the deaths. He plays it menacingly, but his character(as well as Graves') come off quite flat, and there is little else to distinguish this film and make it memorable. Too bad.

This film would have been much better if it had some balance. There were no strong supporting actors at all, with Graves and Walker providing outstanding roles and the rest just falling flat on their face.

Graves worked well as the slowly weakening ex-hunter, while Walker did an amazing job portraying the evil and creepy (and still strong) wolf hunter. However, the rest of the actors (especially Graves' girlfriend and the police chief) did a horrible job with their characters.

The fact that the kills really arent portrayed in a gory fashion makes the film feel like less a horror movie and more of a suspense/murder mystery, which bothered me a bit. Additionally, the ending, though a double twist (from not surprising to surprising to not surprising again) was a bit hard to swallow, that and it ends much more abruptly than I would have wished. Overall, not a high recommendation, but still a fairly good representation of low budget 70s fare 5/10.

A series of grisly attacks has the police stumped. So, they call in expert John Wetherby (Peter Graves), who calls in big game hunter Byron Douglas (Clint Walker) who is basically a turtleneck-wearing block of granite with enormous sideburns.

When more deaths occur, Wetherby tries without success to convince Byron to help him track down a creature that defies classification. Byron tries to convince Wetherby that mankind is useless and weak, even terrifying a restaurant patron to prove his point.

When Wetherby's girlfriend, Sandy (Jo Ann Pflug) is nearly killed, he decides to hunt the beast. When Wetherby asks Byron for help again, Byron challenges him to arm wrestle. His misanthropic machismo knows no bounds! Can the monster be stopped, before it mutilates more emasculated milquetoasts of modern mankind?

SCREAM OF THE WOLF is another made-for-TV horror movie from Producer / Director Dan Curtis. While not as stellar as some of his other offerings, it's certainly worth a viewing or two. Be sure not to miss the big, semi-shock finale!...

This made for TV movie is from Dan Curtis...and that should come as no surprise as Curtis made a living making low-budget horror films and TV shows--such as the original "Dark Shadows" as well as excellent made for TV films about Dracula, Kolchak (the reporter that investigates monster sightings), possessed African dolls, Frankenstein and others. Most of his work was very good though I wouldn't place "Scream of the Wolf" among his best films.

Some creature has been tearing folks to pieces and John (Peter Graves) is a hunter who's been given the task of killing whatever it is. However, he soon notices that the footprints go from a wolf-like creature to human...but he won't allow himself to believe it's a werewolf. When he tries to get help from a clearly nutty associate, Byron (Clint Walker) has a strange reaction--he's totally disinterested in killing the creature and even seems to be completely ambivalent about all the deaths!! Clearly the viewer is being led to believe that Byron is most likely the wolf-man. And, clearly, Walker's character is about as subtle as a 2x4 upside your head! He's a super freaky weirdo and Walker looks as if he had fun playing this guy. And, although Graves is the leading man in the film, your attention is drawn to Walker whenever he's on the screen. So is Byron the werewolf or is there some other explanation? And, how does this movie end up being very much like the classic film "The Most Deadly Game"?

Considering the budget for this film was pretty low and the ABC movies were made quickly, how they handled the whole werewolf aspect of the story was an interesting idea that worked very well. Not the best movie of the week I've seen but very memorable and fun...in a kooky sort of way. Well worth seeing...and a lot better than the surprisingly low overall score of 5.1 (as of this review).

If any comments are recent, I usually keep my mouth shut. But, because the reviews of Scream of the Wolf are so few, I'll offer my opinion. I'd say that this is "not bad...not good" (purposefully put in that order): right down the middle. The "not bad" part, I thought, describes the acting. But there are parts of the writing and costuming that I found to be "not good," i. e., too illogical. The plot is suspenseful (and uncomplicated) enough: Catching the culprit(s?) responsible for what becomes six killings in a California town, which includes as its residents (1) a corvette-driving, used-to-be-quite-a-nimrod, bachelor/author (Graves); and his buddy, who he's spending decreasing time with - (2) a turtleneck-wearing, weird-philosophizing, big-game hunter (Walker). (He dresses that way even when splitting wood!) Pflug is Graves' love interest. I wonder if that's the relationship between Walker and his butler (McGowan)? Less veiled is Walker's crush on Graves, in whom the arm-wrestling Walker wants to restore the macho-ism and take to South America. A fifth main cast member is the sheriff (Carey), who would LIKE to benefit from the tracking expertise of BOTH Walker's AND Graves' characters. But only Graves assists. Is there anything supernatural to all this? You'll have to watch the movie to find out. It's an adequate use of your time. Just don't blow too much money.

When a couple of people are killed in the woods by what appears to be a very large animal a retired hunter by the name of "John Wetherby" (Peter Graves) is asked by the local sheriff, "Vernon Bell" (Philip Carey) to lend his expertise. What he discovers is that the large wolf tracks start off with 4 footprints and then mysteriously dwindle to 2 footprints and then disappear. Additionally, the tracking dogs lose the scent at this point as well. Feeling quite baffled John goes to visit an extreme hunting guide named "Byron Douglas" (Clint Walker) to ask for his help. Surprisingly, Byron refuses even though they are very good friends. Meanwhile, the killings continue and soon there is talk of a werewolf running around which terrorizes the entire town. Now, rather than give away any more of the story and risk ruining the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this was a fair made-for-television production which manages to keep the mystery and suspense going throughout most of the movie. The acting was decent with Peter Graves probably giving the best performance of all. Again, while it's certainly not a blockbuster by any means it's decent enough and I rate it as average.

This is an exceptionally well made for TV movie that has your standard werewolf movie stuff,but yet its a strange kind of duck,with a surprise twist.The acting is done extremely well,especially by Graves and Walker,who absolutely steals the show as a big game hunter with a rather interesting philosophical point of view about life and a grim,yet at the same time, happy go lucky kind of personality.Some of his lines are quite memorable{"Look at the terrified faces of these people.They feel alive in the face of danger".].The film has convincing moments of tension and the story moves along at a steady pace with a convincing feeling of mystery.Peter Graves is brilliant,too, as the retired hunter coming out of retirement to track down an apparent werewolf on the loose.All in all,this film is done with a certain amount of style and flair rarely seen in made for TV movies these days.This is a great one to watch late at night.If you like horror/mystery types of movies,I highly recommend this.Its worth seeing just for Clint Walker"s character and the great job he does portraying him!

The 70s brought forward a lot of excellent TV-movies, some of which even rank among my all-time favorite movies - like "Duel" or "Where have all the people gone?". Admittedly, however, a whole lot of them are very standard, mundane, and run-of-the-mill productions like thirteen in a dozen.

"Scream of the Wolf" belongs in the latter category, sadly. Although certainly decent and mildly enjoyable, it's an unmemorable thriller/creature-feature. Director Dan Curtis, as well as writer Richard Matheson and lead actor Peter Graves, are on complete autopilot in this tale about a ravenous (were-)wolf terrorizing a small Californian coastal town. When several people are found viciously mauled beyond recognition, the local sheriff calls in the assistance of a former big-game hunter turned writer. He - Graves - also doesn't have a clue, so he asks an even better hunter (Clint Walker) for help, but that guy refuses and acts even more eccentric than usually.

The pacing is good and the nightly attack sequences- although quite blurry - are atmospheric enough, but the plot and especially the ending are too obvious and derivative.

Scream of the Wolf (1974)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Made-for-TV horror film from Dan Curtis has a game hunter (Peter Graves) coming out of retirement to track down a wolf that has been killing people but he soon fears that it's actually a werewolf. Another game hunter (Clint Walker) in town refuses to help in the case and obviously suspicion falls on him. SCREAM OF THE WOLF isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but with such a short running time, a great atmosphere and some fun performances there's no question that fans of the genre should enjoy it. I'll give Curtis a lot credit because he really does quite a bit with obviously very little money. I thought the director did a really good job at building up a rather dark atmosphere and this is especially true during the attack sequences. Another good aspect of this happens with the beautiful scenes in the darken woods with the fog machines doing their job. Graves offers up the laid back type of performance we'd expect from him and he does a nice job with the role. Walker easily steals the film as the main suspect and I really liked how he played guilty so obviously well. Jo Ann Pflug is good as the love interest and Philip Carey is nice as the sheriff. The one major problem with the film is that the screenplay makes it clear who the killer is and if this doesn't turn out to be the case then there's an obvious twist. I won't ruin which way the film goes but I think more of a mystery would have helped things especially since we never actually see the wolf as the film wants to keep us in the dark as to who or what is doing the killings. Still, SCREAM OF THE WOLF has enough going for it to make it worth viewing.

Acting: mostly OK (Graves and Pflug are decent)

Camera-work: Pedestrian - passable for TV

Plot: Predictable but interestingly carried out

Directing and editing: Mediocre at best.

Peter Graves makes an unconvincing action star in this horror film which seems to be mostly lacking in horror. He is ably supported by Jo Ann Pflug and somewhat over-supported by Clint Walker. Apparently the southern USA was the setting of a slew of wolf, wolfman, werewolf and lycanthrope flicks in the 1970s (somehow I missed all of them until recently), mostly starring out-of-work TV actors. Among these, Scream of the Wolf is unique for a couple of reasons:

First, its unusual title.

Second, it's somewhat unique (and interesting) plot.

Graves is an older local dude (it's never really clear what he does or did), Pflug is his love interest, and Walker is a hunting buddy with somewhat extreme Hemingwayian view of life and society. People start dying, and a wolf - or something like a wolf, appears to be the culprit. Soon, it becomes apparent that there is a pattern to killings, and it increasingly centers on Graves.

This is a low budget, intelligently plotted and scripted film. The death scenes are the usual genre cop-outs: Point of view scenes shot from the perspective of the attacker. With just a little more thoughtful camera-work and editing, it could have been a good film.

For those who might not know, Dan Curtis created the classic Dark Shadows and Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Basically he "ruled" televised horror films during the 1970s and he influenced a number of directors whose work is popular today.

This film, however, was not one of his better works. Joann Pflug (at her most radiantly beautiful) is under-utilized as the love interest. Clint Walker and Peter Graves play a surprising pair of nominally straight hunters who engage in a bromance that is slightly less homoerotic than Brokeback Mountain, Slightly.

Everyone else is just along for the ride.

Slow (even at 80 minutes, dull and predictable. If you cannot guess who the "killer" is after the first 10 minutes, you need to go back to Hardy Boys novels. When the end finally comes, you'll wish that the film had end 10-15 minutes earlier when your interest in it did.

This movie was extremely slow and boring, not remotely scary. Well Clint Walker is a bit scary on his own but for a short movie it took forever to get through. Great use of the dog machines but it was often hard to see anything in those dark sceens.

A big-game hunter has come back to town and he helps to hunt down a notorious wolf in the area but he soon believes that the wolf has two legs - a werewolf.

This is one of the better made for horror-thriller TV films. It's always fun for me to watch a good werewolf movie and yes this one is good. This one is not overly graphic or bloody - it's just a good "hunt down the werewolf" tale.

If you want a good double feature watch "Scream of the Wolf (1974)" along with "Moon of the Wolf (1972)" (another good made for TV werewolf story).

8.5/10

Forget the obvious corny storyline, there are some genuinely scary scenes in this horror flick