Cry Wolf

When the troubled Owen (Julian Morris) joins the private Westlake Preparatory Academy, he meets the senior student Dodger (Lindy Booth), who invites him to participate of a game of lies with her friends. The objective of the lying game is to avoid suspicious, manipulate the friends and eliminate the enemies. The group decides to play a prank in all the mates of the high school, using a recent unsolved murder of a student in the campus. They send e-mails to all colleagues describing fake crimes with the same characteristics of the young woman committed by a serial killer called "The Wolf". Their teacher Rich Walker (Jon Bon Jovi) advises Owen how serious this joke could be. When the students of their group start to disappear, Owen, Dodger and Tom realize that the criminal became real.

"Cry_Wolf "was a great surprise for me, being an entertaining tale of manipulation. The engaging story has many unpredictable twists and a surprising conclusion. The promising teen cast has great performances, highlighting the gorgeous Lindy Booth, Julian Morris and Jared "Supernatural" Padalecki, besides the name of Jon Bon Jovi. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Cry_Wolf: O Jogo da Mentira" ("Cry_Wolf: The Lying Game")

I actually enjoyed watching this. It's not that bad. It's kinda what you should expect from a slasher/mystery movie from 2005. I wasn't expecting an award nominee movie. But the plot twists add a cool addition that are pretty unexpected. Probably wouldn't ever watch it again, nor is it a "must-watch". But if you're bored without anything to do I'd give it a watch.

A surprisingly intelligent suspense/horror film. Notice the dual title I gave to it? Yeah, that's because it takes elements from both to make a much better movie. I'm really surprised they canceled the critics' screenings for this because I honestly think it would get good reviews from quite a few critics. Maybe I'm wrong.

Either way, it starts off in post-Scream slasher mode before kicking things into gear. It quickly takes on the trappings of the urban legend/parable/whatever that the title is derived from, with a group of spoiled rich kids deciding to trick their private school into thinking there's a killer on campus. Trouble is...there actually might be.

The two leads, Julian Morris and Lindy Booth are both actually very good. Booth, who did almost nothing in the Dawn of the Dead remake, shines brightest, mixing girl-next-door charm with a lying, manipulative alter-ego. And it makes sense because her character uses the former so she can accomplish the latter.

Another surprising stand-out is...Jon Bon Jovi? Yeah, the guy can actually act. He skirts the line a few times but he's definitely believable as an English teacher. His story arc is also kind of funny when you consider his career, and what that likely entailed during the '80s. So once again, not a stretch.

The only flaw I could see with the movie is that it seems a little calculating. At points, it seems like it's intentionally trying to avoid teen horror clichés. For example, a victim is being chased and instead of running out a door, he tries to trick the killer into thinking he has. Smart. Probably too smart for a high school student, but at least it's a change from the same run, scream, hide, run again, knife to the throat routine.

Speaking of that tired old routine and the rating it usually causes, this is probably the first time in years where I actually felt a PG-13 rating was warranted. Making this an R horror movie would've killed any semblance of logic. Here the violence isn't necessarily what's supposed to frighten you. Human nature is. Their lies are what bring about the conclusion, which is infinitely darker than anything Jason Vorhees has ever done.

This movie is strange. When I remember this movie, it looks like 1998 style horror movie and it's to bad, because this movie is 2005 release. Another bad thing about this movie - the same non-original scenes in student town. It so boring. The director have to take original places, not a college town. The third bad thing - actor. They acted really bad. They not entertaining. producer have to take better horror movie stars. Poor Jon Bon Jovi, he goes to the wrong movie. Maybe he was just for money? Best thing in movie - original idea about imagine serial killer in town, who's killing students in college town. And I think this is it...

This is one of those movies that try hard to confuse the audience to dissemble obvious twists in the plot, but fail completely. Never does "Cry_Wolf" fool you. You know exactly where it's going and you also know that the final explanation is not going to work after all the "facts" that have been given to us earlier. It sounds confusing, but if you see the movie you'll know what I mean. The worst thing about "Cry_Wolf", however, is that Jeff Wadlow isn't able to pull off one good scare or a thrilling suspense scene. The whole thing just isn't exciting in any way, it's merely tolerable enough for you to keep your eyes on the screen. Needless to say that the characters and the performances are as flat as the story itself (this is, after all, a cast that includes Jon Bon Jovi). There have been far better horror movies (if you want to call it that) in the past 6 years and you'd be well advised to watch the other "Wolf"-movie of 2005, "Wolf Creek", instead of this forgettable affair.