Out Come the Wolves

Catching up with my 2024 horror films watch list brings me to this film. A typical premise of three people who go out to a cabin in the woods and then something nefarious happens. It's a girl, her fiancé, and her childhood friend (who is secretly in love with her) on a hunting trip that meets tragedy when they encounter a pack of wild wolves. It actually starts off real well as the time spent developing the relationship between the characters is well done (especially since the cast is better than expected). Sometime after the first wolf attack, the film falls flat pretty fast and never fully recovers. There are some great moments that will keep you entertained and engaged throughout but overall it's just a okay film. All the wolf footage looks amazing.

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 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.

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!

No pun intended - this is quite borderline ... if you had fears of wolves, this will not soothe them. The effects are quite well done considering the low budget this has. And it is relatively short (run time wise), which is a good thing for anyone to enjoy and be with the movie from start to finish.

There is a lot of violence, a lot of action - I think it works for what it tries to do (suspense and giving you the insanity you came to watch this in the first place). Not sure I would rate the acting here ... also I hope this does not do what Jaws did to sharks ... well to wolves. Wolves actually are quite necessary in the wild. But we all know and acknowledge this is just a movie that tries to entertain ...