Cry Wolf

The brief read up I read I had it down as a typical low budget slasher, and it had bon jovi as an actor in it. So things weren't looking up before I even pressed play.

However it was quite good, it started off with a typical slasher killing of a girl in the woods, then after that a story and plot develops based on it.

A rich British lad has been expelled from school in England and faces a drugs charge, but good 'ol daddy twists a few arms and gets him shipped off to America and join a private posh school campus.

Here he meets a bunch of kids, and as a prank they decide to use the recent murder nearby in the woods as their joke.

So they send out a group email to the whole campus saying 'this happened at my old school there were 6 murders, the first was in the woods with a handgun, the 2nd murder was ... and so. They also give the killer a description of an orange ski mask and cameo jacket and using a knife for the 5 other murders, and went by the name WOLF.

As word spreads round the campus, 'is this real' or 'is it a joke?' it happens!! ohh one of the group goes missing!! And then other murders start to happen using their hoax descriptions! Quite a refreshing take on of the whole slasher/campus theme which holds a few twists and turns. Some are blatant too but never-mind.

Over all its an enjoyable movie which is filmed quite well. Cry Wolf looks to have a decent budget to it too, it's good to not see typical bad acting in this style of movie. If I were to sum it up, it's Scream meets Skulls.

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.

Avoid suspicion. Manipulate your friends. Eliminate your enemies. That's the name of the game that these fictional students play on campus, and on a bigger level it's the name of the game they're playing with the audience. Well, except for the "eliminate your enemies" bit. Though there were some annoying chatters that I wish could have been eliminated from the theater.

Working with a minimal budget and a no-name cast (except for Bon Jovi and Gary Cole), director Jeff Wadlow has shown us, just like last year's Saw did, that when your ambition is bigger than your pocketbook then you can still create an extremely entertaining film. This isn't quite as frantic and intense as Saw, but I have no problem admitting that it sucked me in and forced me to thoroughly enjoy it.

Get ready to bait your pole for a little red herring fishing because this movie's teeming with 'em. If you don't mind being manipulated as you try to guess who the killer is then you should have a fun time. I thought I had it figured out several times, and within the last 10 minutes I finally did guess what was going on ... somewhat. There was another small twist at the end that kind of caught me off guard. The movie is constructed slickly enough to convince you that you've got the mystery solved, but the twists are just subtle enough to throw you off the trail and reveal that you're not as smart as you think you are.

I get tired of people complaining about PG-13 horror movies. "I want lots of cussing! I want lots of gore! I want nudity!" Really? Well, I want a decent story that I can sink my teeth into and follow with interest. I want an element of surprise. I want dialogue that doesn't rely on ye olde "f" bomb as an uncreative crutch. I don't want to be seething with anger over a stupid plot twist that makes no sense in retrospect to the rest of the movie.

Cry_Wolf succeeds on each of these points, and if you keep in mind the limitations that come with such a small budget and remind yourself that there are no Oscar winners in this cast, then you should get your money's worth. If you're looking for a gore-soaked bloodbath with topless women running all over the place then you're probably just going to troll the message boards and complain about how horrible this movie is, so just save us all your whining and go watch a Chucky movie instead.

THE GIST

Cry_Wolf is not a slasher movie that is focused on how many deaths the killer can pile up. It's more of a mystery that is concerned with keeping the audience guessing for 90 minutes. I would've liked a little more tension and a few more scares, but I tip my hat to director Wadlow for a fine effort on such a small budget.

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 group of friends at Wesley, a rich upscale high school, play a game called cry wolf every night. The game was created by the group's leader Dodger (Lindy Booth) who marks one of her friends as the liar with a red marker and it's up to the rest of the group to figure out who is the liar. One day Dodger and the new kid at the school Owen (Julian Morris) decide it will be fun to make up an entire lie about a murdering serial killer loose on campus. Owen and Dodger go along with the idea and send a mass email to everyone on campus letting them know that a killer by the name of "The Wolf" is murdering people on campus. But it isn't long before this little joke turns into a real threat that might cost everyone involved in the joke their lives.

Three words can be used to describe this film clever, suspenseful, and enjoyable! I really enjoyed this film and I didn't see it coming at all, I expected something mediocre at best when walking into the theater. While the marketing for this film is misleading and makes this movie seem like another brainless teen horror slasher flick, I assure you it's not like that. While I wouldn't call this movie 100% percent original, I would say that this movie is a pretty fresh idea with a lot of originality. This movie is great for a few reasons, the first reason is because the idea behind it is pretty new, the second reason is that the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat with suspense, and lastly the film keeps you guessing. I love movies that make you keep you thinking and just when you think you know what's going to happen, your proved wrong. This film contains a lot of twists! And I haven't seen a movie that kept me guessing all the way till the end in a long time.

The acting for this cast of newcomers is actually pretty good especially for the genre at hand. I really enjoyed Julian Morris's character Owen; he played the part very well and he was very believable. I also really enjoyed Lindy Booth who was excellent as Dodger, she had such a controlling power about her and she really brought it out on screen. Also I have to mention that she was incredibly cute! Also the other surprise here was Jon Bon Jovi who actually can act and sing which is always an incredible pair but he was good as the sleazy journalism teacher. There are several others to mention here and that would probably take far too much time to list them all but they were all good at the roles they played.

"Cry_Wolf" was directed by newcomer Jeff Wadlow a recent USC film graduate. I must say that I liked what he did with the film. He knew how to build the suspense and capture the character's fears and excitement. I really liked some of the camera shots especially the whole collage thing when all of the people started to read the email about the serial killer on campus. Nice work there! Also Jeff co-wrote the film with Beau Bauman and I must say the film was a pretty fresh idea and I loved the whole idea behind the film considering it seems like an idea that could happen now with computers and cell phones everywhere.

So to sum it up, "Cry_Wolf" is not what the trailers lead you to believe; instead it's a suspense thriller with good acting, a semi original story, and a great ending. The movie contains several twists that keeps the audience always on the edge of their seats asking the question "What's going to happen next?" It might not be an Oscar worthy film but it's a damn good thriller to say the least. It keeps you guessing and interested from start to finish and what more can you ask for from a mainstream Hollywood film?

MovieManMenzel's final rating for "Cry_Wolf" is a 8/10. Buy the big popcorn and sit back and enjoy the suspense.