Nella terra dei lupi

These movies are usually the kind that I personally enjoy, even though they are often quite flawed. I thought this movie would involve a couple of people constantly being threatened by a pack of wolves and fighting them off for their survival, and I was excited to see that or something similar. Instead, the movie unfolds a little differently.

A guy invites his female friend and her soon-to-be husband to his cabin. After plenty of conversation and drama, it becomes clear that the guy has always had feelings for his female best friend and is obviously not okay with her getting married. The next day, he takes a short hunting trip on an ATV with the soon-to-be husband. Growing tensions between the two are suddenly interrupted by a couple of wolves. Up to this point, the movie seemed fine, but then the characters start acting like complete idiots.

For some reason, they have only a bow and barely any ammunition. The guy, who was initially portrayed as an experienced hunter, suddenly has a complete meltdown when he encounters the first wolf. Normally, a wolf would immediately run away, but in this movie, it becomes aggressive and starts attacking, which is fine as a concept. There are quite a few attack scenes, but they are mostly shot in extreme close-ups with lots of shaky cam, making it almost impossible to tell what's going on.

That approach worked in The Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio for a more immersive experience, but the cinematographer in this movie clearly didn't have the same talent. During the carnage, you can only guess who or what is being bitten at any given moment. Additionally, the shots of wolves supposedly attacking are clearly just footage of wolves running through the forest with no aggression whatsoever. It all feels amateurish and inexperienced, which is surprising considering Adam MacDonald's previous films, Backcountry and Pyewacket. Both were solid, well-made movies, with Backcountry even being a similar survival thriller featuring a bear as the antagonist.

There are a few decent-looking makeup effects in the gore department, and the acting is overall solid, with Missy Peregrym standing out. However, this movie was barely enjoyable and left much to be desired. Annoyingly stupid characters and chaotic attack sequences sadly ruin what could have been a great survival thriller. [5,2/10]

This movie has a slow start, 'as in watching a snail move from one spot & not having the patience to see its final destination..., so I had to fast forward>> (simply to see if this was a waste of time), obviously 'never a good sign'.

The cinematography is excellent, unfortunately the characters become increasingly annoying, and 'wilfully stupid'!, though, that's down to the story line/script, writer could have done better, however the acting is pretty good... Wolf scenes and effects are good too...

most reviews have given a rating of 3 or 4 out of 10.

That is apart from one inexplicably review rating of 10 on 10!

...Honestly seems as though we watched different movies! Or the reviewer was having a happy joyous moment!

This was not good. No hunter goes bow hunting without at least a .357 or better pistol, there are many reasons for this. There are so many unbelievable things that occur or that people do deliberately. Also the kooky non boyfriend friend seems mentally unstable. He hunts the area frequently every week in that area but has never seen signs of these wolves before. He is just jerky and so is the fiance who has no experience at all. So they go out under armed and with no epirb type device or cell phone. Todays cell phones even have emergency satellite access. Then the wacky behaviour of the wolves really does it. We deserved better Missy. I will go watch some Rookie Blue or Backcountry I guess.

The story line kicked off to a great start, the acting was good for a while and then the movie started going up and down. Having lived in the woods for decades in a summer home, being around wolves, this movie for me was someone's depiction of how things might be based on pure imagination. The acting had some cheesy scenes, the hunting aspects was lame, not realistic, lame accidents, like someone took ideas and pasted them on a board, it didn't fit in well and was awkward to watch at times. They took a good story and in my opinion ruined what good have otherwise been an entertaining movie. I would have given this a 6 if the movie was remotely believable. I don't recommend it. It was barely a 4 out of 10.

Missy Peregrym needs to stay out of the woods. Teaming up with the director of Back Country, she experiences another wilderness based fight for survival.

Introducing her new fiancee to her oldest best friend (who is male), the film starts with the two men preparing to go hunting as the fiancee is a writer and editor planning a story about the hunt and kill to provide meat as food. Here we gain a look at the discrepancies in personality of two people raised in wilderness and the hunting culture, and one raised in the city scape.

Now, for the problematic parts. The trio of characters come with some baggage that is unresolved. Jealousy makes for a poor plot contrivance. The director made a similar mistake is his film Back Country as well. And that's too bad as this interferes with what could have been a cleaner story.

Aside from that, this is a tight film with the second half a tense survival story.