Lone Wolf

A small town in Colorado is plagued by grisly attacks involving a pack of wild dogs or some other animal, but they curiously only occur during the full moon. The brooding lead singer of a local rock band (Jamie Newcomb) teams-up with some fellow college students to resolve the problem.

"Lone Wolf" (1988) was made on a direct-to-video budget with no-name actors and a half-serious, half-hammy tone, yet it's entertaining as comic book horror in the mold of a fun slasher, but possibly featuring a wolf-like creature. You can tell the cast had a good time. It's superior to the contemporaneous "Night Shadow" and I'd watch it any day over "Silver Bullet."

What's interesting is that most of the students appear to be around 30. Sure, Colleen looks like she could be 18-21, but Julie and, especially, Deirdre and Eddie look past 30. The creators obviously kept the nature of the school ambiguous because of this factor, just calling it "Fairview School." I guess it's supposed to be a community college, yet all the school scenes were obviously shot at a high school (cited below). Hey, they had to shoot where they could afford.

There are four songs on the soundtrack by the hair metal band Tyxe, all written by Greg Leslie: "Raised On Rock & Roll," "Misunderstood," "Let It Rock" and "Rock You All Night." These songs are evidently from their 1988 demo, but further information on the group is pretty much nonexistent. Their style is akin to bands like Dokken, Ratt and Warrant.

The movie runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot in the greater Denver area, including Adams City High School and Jefferson County.

GRADE: B-

Yes, this movie is objectively done badly, but it's that bad done fun, the characters are nice, the gore effects are cool and the werewolf definitely badass, plus there's a nice hard rock soundtrack. I prefer a small film like this to modern films of today.

The other's reviewer completely failed to acknowledge how entertaining this movie really is. If you enjoy bad horror movies at all, you will certainly be pleased. Foremost, it is not boring in the least... the main weakness of most films of it's caliber. And it is quite funny; both intentionally and otherwise. I have a special place in my heart for horror films shot on video, and this is probably the best of that category. The cinematography is very similar to that of most PBS instructional programming. I just love it, and have introduced it to many others who agree. The filmmakers should be commended for making such a great movie on such a low budget. And a special note to the other reviewer; mullets and jokes about them are no longer funny (and were long dead when you wrote your review). Get over it.

Low budget, horribly acted, dreadfully directed and featuring a bunch of thirtysomethings as high school students. Stereotypical 1980s fashions and musical styles abound. Ah, those were simpler days: the hair was big; a basic data search required genius-level computer skills; and anyone with a camcorder, a lousy script and a dream could make a direct-to-video werewolf movie.

This certainly isn't a good movie. It isn't even a competent movie. It may not even be a coherent movie. But its whodunit werewolf heart is in the right place; and there's corny fun to be had if you go in with the right expectations. Especially if you watch it with a good-natured group that's willing to enjoy the schlock.

Basically its a low budget, film The werewolf transformation is cool? Amazon video sure has low budget flicks a plenty. Give it a shot for the 80s hair metal fans !