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.

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.

The few 10/10 reviews here are obviously from people involved with the film, related to people who are or were part of the crowd fund. It's not even close, not even in the horror genre alone, or even the werewolf genre. It's bad.

Good for the makers for getting their film made, but more time should have been spent on the script, especially the dialogue. Way too talky for it's own good.

The cinematography isn't great either, often finding the camera placement in awkward positions, giving a very messy feel to scenes.

I understand that it's a crowd funded film and had a very low budget, but the script should have been worked on a lot more and fine-tuned before deciding to green light the thing.

Like I said, congratulations to all involved on getting a film made. But next time, spend a helluva lot more time on the script, it's one of the most important aspects of any film.

Best of luck in the future.

An indie film crew has descended upon rural Pennsylvania following their local scout to his family's property. The scout has been estranged from his family for an unknown reason. The local area is being hounded by animalistic terror.

The acting is mostly amateurish. The production is not much better. I actually like the opening five minutes. The rural biker lowlife party brings out the right vibe and I really like the unrestraint gore. It's good indie fun. Once the gore stops, the movie struggles. It tries to have some fun with diva Marla Taylor although she gets knocked off quite early. It falls a bit short.

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!