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")

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...

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.

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.