Scream of the Wolf

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!...

Only the most die hard werewolf movie fans (or bottom feeders who like to see bad films as a sort of self-inflicted pleasure-pain) will want to endure this. Even they may be disappointed. Silver fox Graves (who drives a hip car and has a hip house while hip music blares) stars as a former hunter turned writer who, after a series of grisly attacks on local residents, decides to hunt down the predator personally. The killings are the standard "hapless victim looks into camera and screams while growls are heard then blackout". This gets tiresome very quickly. One extended attack on Grave's ladyfriend Pflug (in a pedestrian performance) has a certain amount of edge to it. (Hilariously, though, this single woman lives in a house that appears to have more rooms than Monticello!) Pflug suspects Walker, an old buddy of Graves who lives in a mansion up in the woods and does a lot of odd philosophizing about human nature. Walker, still attractive and virile, gives an unusual performance full of dopey expressions and strange vocal inflections. His relationship with Graves has a homoerotic twinge, not unlike the Stephen Boyd/Charlton Heston dynamic in "Ben-Hur". Sheriff Carey rounds out the male trio of tall actors. The film aspires to a level of intellect that it's budget cheapens more than a little. Still, it's not the worst TV horror movie ever made. At least someone tried to write something with a little irony and mystery to it. One scene between Graves, Pflug and Walker takes place in a restaurant that must have a sign on the door, "No one attractive allowed!" Soap opera veteran Storm appears briefly as a victim.

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.

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).

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.