Cry Wolf

This is one of those movies that try hard to confuse the audience to dissemble obvious twists in the plot, but fail completely. Never does "Cry_Wolf" fool you. You know exactly where it's going and you also know that the final explanation is not going to work after all the "facts" that have been given to us earlier. It sounds confusing, but if you see the movie you'll know what I mean. The worst thing about "Cry_Wolf", however, is that Jeff Wadlow isn't able to pull off one good scare or a thrilling suspense scene. The whole thing just isn't exciting in any way, it's merely tolerable enough for you to keep your eyes on the screen. Needless to say that the characters and the performances are as flat as the story itself (this is, after all, a cast that includes Jon Bon Jovi). There have been far better horror movies (if you want to call it that) in the past 6 years and you'd be well advised to watch the other "Wolf"-movie of 2005, "Wolf Creek", instead of this forgettable affair.

I actually enjoyed watching this. It's not that bad. It's kinda what you should expect from a slasher/mystery movie from 2005. I wasn't expecting an award nominee movie. But the plot twists add a cool addition that are pretty unexpected. Probably wouldn't ever watch it again, nor is it a "must-watch". But if you're bored without anything to do I'd give it a watch.

A group of friends at Wesley, a rich upscale high school, play a game called cry wolf every night. The game was created by the group's leader Dodger (Lindy Booth) who marks one of her friends as the liar with a red marker and it's up to the rest of the group to figure out who is the liar. One day Dodger and the new kid at the school Owen (Julian Morris) decide it will be fun to make up an entire lie about a murdering serial killer loose on campus. Owen and Dodger go along with the idea and send a mass email to everyone on campus letting them know that a killer by the name of "The Wolf" is murdering people on campus. But it isn't long before this little joke turns into a real threat that might cost everyone involved in the joke their lives.

Three words can be used to describe this film clever, suspenseful, and enjoyable! I really enjoyed this film and I didn't see it coming at all, I expected something mediocre at best when walking into the theater. While the marketing for this film is misleading and makes this movie seem like another brainless teen horror slasher flick, I assure you it's not like that. While I wouldn't call this movie 100% percent original, I would say that this movie is a pretty fresh idea with a lot of originality. This movie is great for a few reasons, the first reason is because the idea behind it is pretty new, the second reason is that the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat with suspense, and lastly the film keeps you guessing. I love movies that make you keep you thinking and just when you think you know what's going to happen, your proved wrong. This film contains a lot of twists! And I haven't seen a movie that kept me guessing all the way till the end in a long time.

The acting for this cast of newcomers is actually pretty good especially for the genre at hand. I really enjoyed Julian Morris's character Owen; he played the part very well and he was very believable. I also really enjoyed Lindy Booth who was excellent as Dodger, she had such a controlling power about her and she really brought it out on screen. Also I have to mention that she was incredibly cute! Also the other surprise here was Jon Bon Jovi who actually can act and sing which is always an incredible pair but he was good as the sleazy journalism teacher. There are several others to mention here and that would probably take far too much time to list them all but they were all good at the roles they played.

"Cry_Wolf" was directed by newcomer Jeff Wadlow a recent USC film graduate. I must say that I liked what he did with the film. He knew how to build the suspense and capture the character's fears and excitement. I really liked some of the camera shots especially the whole collage thing when all of the people started to read the email about the serial killer on campus. Nice work there! Also Jeff co-wrote the film with Beau Bauman and I must say the film was a pretty fresh idea and I loved the whole idea behind the film considering it seems like an idea that could happen now with computers and cell phones everywhere.

So to sum it up, "Cry_Wolf" is not what the trailers lead you to believe; instead it's a suspense thriller with good acting, a semi original story, and a great ending. The movie contains several twists that keeps the audience always on the edge of their seats asking the question "What's going to happen next?" It might not be an Oscar worthy film but it's a damn good thriller to say the least. It keeps you guessing and interested from start to finish and what more can you ask for from a mainstream Hollywood film?

MovieManMenzel's final rating for "Cry_Wolf" is a 8/10. Buy the big popcorn and sit back and enjoy the suspense.

At first glance, CRY WOLF appears to be a slasher flick as a helpless female is hunted down by a masked killer in some deep dark woods. But in reality it is a straightforward murder mystery involving a bunch of prep school students who decide to play a deadly game of who's-the-killer after a local girl is found shot to death in the woods near their school. You may think you are watching a killer-on-the-prowl scenario, and in a way you would be right. But wait until the end. Nothing is as it seems. Absolutely nothing. The resolution is likely to leave you breathless. The director worked with what appears to be a very small budget and a mostly unknown cast, and does right by a script that at times reminded me of SCREAM or THE FACULTY or THE SKULLS. It even reminded me vaguely of TEN LITTLE INDIANS/AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, which tells you something about my age. The female lead, a manipulative redhead played expertly by Linday Booth, is very much in the Rachel McAdams mold and I expect to see more out of her. An almost unrecognizable Jon Bon Jovi plays her teacher/lover!

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.