Scream of the Wolf

If any comments are recent, I usually keep my mouth shut. But, because the reviews of Scream of the Wolf are so few, I'll offer my opinion. I'd say that this is "not bad...not good" (purposefully put in that order): right down the middle. The "not bad" part, I thought, describes the acting. But there are parts of the writing and costuming that I found to be "not good," i. e., too illogical. The plot is suspenseful (and uncomplicated) enough: Catching the culprit(s?) responsible for what becomes six killings in a California town, which includes as its residents (1) a corvette-driving, used-to-be-quite-a-nimrod, bachelor/author (Graves); and his buddy, who he's spending decreasing time with - (2) a turtleneck-wearing, weird-philosophizing, big-game hunter (Walker). (He dresses that way even when splitting wood!) Pflug is Graves' love interest. I wonder if that's the relationship between Walker and his butler (McGowan)? Less veiled is Walker's crush on Graves, in whom the arm-wrestling Walker wants to restore the macho-ism and take to South America. A fifth main cast member is the sheriff (Carey), who would LIKE to benefit from the tracking expertise of BOTH Walker's AND Graves' characters. But only Graves assists. Is there anything supernatural to all this? You'll have to watch the movie to find out. It's an adequate use of your time. Just don't blow too much money.

A rural community is shaken by gruesome killings in the woods by what appears to be a werewolf (the tracks near the bodies shows four paw prints that soon become two, and then disappear); former hunter-turned-writer Peter Graves assists the local sheriff in unraveling the mystery. Not-bad TV-made thriller has interesting subjective camera-work along with the proverbial fog in the woods and snarling sound effects. Graves is solid, as usual, and has a few intense scenes with maniacal 'old friend' Clint Walker, but it's too bad writer Richard Matheson felt the need to cover all his bases plot-wise. The more explanations we get in the finale, the more ridiculous it all begins to seem. Director Dan Curtis also produced, in what appears to be a case for The Night Stalker. Robert Cobert is responsible for the erratic music score.

This film would have been much better if it had some balance. There were no strong supporting actors at all, with Graves and Walker providing outstanding roles and the rest just falling flat on their face.

Graves worked well as the slowly weakening ex-hunter, while Walker did an amazing job portraying the evil and creepy (and still strong) wolf hunter. However, the rest of the actors (especially Graves' girlfriend and the police chief) did a horrible job with their characters.

The fact that the kills really arent portrayed in a gory fashion makes the film feel like less a horror movie and more of a suspense/murder mystery, which bothered me a bit. Additionally, the ending, though a double twist (from not surprising to surprising to not surprising again) was a bit hard to swallow, that and it ends much more abruptly than I would have wished. Overall, not a high recommendation, but still a fairly good representation of low budget 70s fare 5/10.

A big-game hunter has come back to town and he helps to hunt down a notorious wolf in the area but he soon believes that the wolf has two legs - a werewolf.

This is one of the better made for horror-thriller TV films. It's always fun for me to watch a good werewolf movie and yes this one is good. This one is not overly graphic or bloody - it's just a good "hunt down the werewolf" tale.

If you want a good double feature watch "Scream of the Wolf (1974)" along with "Moon of the Wolf (1972)" (another good made for TV werewolf story).

8.5/10

From the Golden Age of the TV movie "Scream of the Wolf" is a time-waster from some pretty big names.

B-movie fans knows that Peter Graves would do anything for a paycheck. So it's no surprise as this movie makes a swift detour towards incoherence early on. Jo Ann Pflug's appearance cinches it. And when super-hunk Clint Walker begins spewing his inane monologues (again and again) you realize all too late that you have entered Z-movie heaven. Because really no one has any business watching "Scream of the Wolf" unless they enjoy watching actors struggling in budget bondage, living in palatial homes which are clearly borrowed for the film and dicing with unseen scary stuff which turns out not to be that scary. But then we are in good hands.

Dan Curtis is a master at low budget television. Dark Shadows is his masterpiece and Trilogy of Terror is still one of the most memorable shows ever on the tube. Burnt Offerings was his first run film....offering, but it's really a beefed up TV movie script that somehow got wings. So with such a resume one would expect "Scream of the Wolf" to be something other than what it is, but it is important to remember that everyone has his bad days. And in the case of co-writer Richard Matheson, this is an understatement. Matheson is not in the minor leagues with Curtis. Matheson is the fantasy-fiction master. Look him up on IMDb and find out. The creator of Omega Man would never have submitted this work as his alone.

A little attention to fine details would have done wonders for this film. In the dialog, in the set design (were there any) and with the casting. A truly wooden set of performances all around. Clint Walker tries to emote passion and complexity but he looks like he's been botoxed. Jo Ann Pflug was better off showing us her stuff on Match Game P.M.. And Peter Graves? This is the Godfather compared to some of the films he's been in.