Wolf Hollow

Mark Cantu's low-budget lycanthrope romp plays like background noise for a pizza-and-soda sleepover: glossy CW-style twenty-somethings, minimal menace. In the beginning, the werewolves barely show-a blessing, given their party-store masks-so most of the runtime is banter, flirting and shaky flashlights. Effects are serviceable, gore restrained, pacing brisk enough that you won't resent the clichés piling up alongside the empty popcorn bowl. Harmless, disposable fun for baby horror fans; seasoned werewolf devotees will crave a meatier bite. Stream it once, then let it drift away with the next full moon.

I have seen a lot of movies that are way worse than this one. It's not nearly as bad as some of the reviews I've read. The acting is not that bad for a low budget horror film actually some of the actors were pretty decent and really none were terrible by no means. The makeup was definitely better than some other films I have watched. It's by no means Oscar worthy but it does have some interesting characters and some comical moments which are pretty funny so if you are looking for something to kill some time and are not to critical it is actually worth watching. I gave it four stars I thought it deserved that much.

I was initially lured in to watch the 2023 movie "Wolf Hollow" as it was a werewolf movie that I had already seen. And the movie's cover definitely did a fair job in making me stop up and pick up the movie. Without ever having heard about director Mark Cantu's 2023 movie, I didn't know what I was in for, aside from it being a werewolf movie, which essentially was all I needed to watch it.

Writers Mark Cantu and Brian Ceponis put together a script and storyline that wasn't particularly impressive. The movie starts out okay, but quickly settles into a slump from which the narrative never really recovers. And the movie advances at a sluggish pace, without much excitement or thrills.

The acting performances in the movie were fairly rigid for the most parts. There were some pretty awful performances, but also some fair enough among the actors and actresses. I've seen enough low budget horror movies to be familiar with Felissa Rose, whom happened to be the only familiar face on the screen.

The special effects in the movie were actually good, taking the rest of the movie into consideration. And truth be told, the special effects do actually carry the movie a long way. The werewolves, though, well they were inarticulate and looked nothing more than what they actually were; and that was Halloween latex masks. That just doesn't cut it, the werewolves should be able to close their mouths, which they couldn't do in this movie.

If you are a diehard fan of werewolf movies, then check out "Wolf Hollow". I do like werewolf movies, but the majority of them are subpar movies, and "Wolf Hollow" fell into that category for me.

My rating of director Mark Cantu's 2023 movie "Wolf Hollow" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

I cannot think of anything good to say about this film other than it is mercifully short. The sound quality is dreadful so it is hard at times to make out what is being said. The camera shots are at weird angles. The acting is dire. The story doesn't make sense and apart from werewolves being able to be killed with silver had very little to do with normally accepted werewolf folklore. The special effects are especially awful. If you value your sanity then don't watch this movie, there are much better ways to spend 90 minutes - you could for example break out a can of paint put some on a wall and watch it dry!

It's a crowd-funded low-budget werewolf horror. And within those parameters it's pretty well done. The plot is straightforward and the performances are mostly fine. The creature designs are effective and they're reminiscent of the hulking anthropomorphized wolves from Dog Soldiers - if it ain't broke don't fix it. The gore and action are competently staged. The downside, aside from the constraints of the budget, is the attempted humor. It's sparsely utilized and it generally falls flat, especially strange and dated references to the show $chitt's Creek.

I'll add that as proud denizen of Pennsyltucky I found the accents distracting. Yes, we are feral hillbillies; but no, we don't actually sound like we're from Kentucky or Alabama or whatever some of the actors were going for here.