Wolves at the Door

One can only hope this was made by a first year film student, and not someone who's been in the business for a while. From the opening factual error , stating the events took place in "1969, the summer of love" (was this written by a millennial kid who had no idea of 1967?) I knew I was in for a stinker. I get the feeling the writer/director saw The Strangers with Liv Tyler and said "yeah, we're gonna make something like that, only BETTER!!"..with any luck, they've since left the film industry.

You could have 2 different directions if you were going to make a film about the Manson murders of 1969, documentary style or a straight drama. In either of those cases though, you should at the very least have the integrity to acknowledge and address the actual subject matter that you are filming. This was NOT a movie inspired by, it was a melodrama about the ACTUAL people who died in that horrible event. The makers of this film though refused to even acknowledge this fact while only inserting hints or references about it. But then they named all the characters the same as those killed that night. Even right down to a pregnant "Sharon"

I'm not sure all the reasons behind such a ridiculous decision, my guess it was fear of repercussions, whether legal or financially from actual family members and decedents of those who lost their lives. I gave it a 2 because I will not reward gutless film making with anything higher..

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Here we go again, what is wrong with horror film makers these days? This time they had a good idea but done badly, I won't say very badly because the acting was pretty good. How can they make a film about a very famous murder and make it almost bloodless. Most of the killings are out of focus,I.e. you see one killing reflected off an off television set. Then others you don't see the impact of a killing. I was looking forward to this film as a few of the write ups have been good but alas more lies. If you want to watch a better film in a similar vein, then watch Your Next.

Wolves at the Door (2016)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Based on the Manson murders, this film centers on four friends who gather at a house to celebrate but soon are faced with the ultimate terror.

WOLVES AT THE DOOR opens up with one of those "based on a true story" things that you've got to read. This was a decent movie but at the same time it somewhat made me violently angry with it. You have to wonder what the filmmakers were trying to do with various aspects of the film but on the whole the movie kept me entertained and I thought it was well-made for the most part but at the same time there were a lot of things here that left me scratching my head.

For starters, the total running time without the end credits was just 66-minutes, which is a very rare thing today. I'm not going to complain about short movies but what's interesting about this picture is that there's zero character development. Normally this would be a problem but I just figured the filmmakers already expected you to know the events and characters so there was no need for an introduction. With that said, if the filmmakers expect you to know the characters then why did they change the story up so much?

The murders, how they happened and so forth have been changed and re-arranged to the point where you're basically watching a remake of THE STRANGERS instead of an actual Manson movie. If one is coming here for a Manson movie then they're going to be disappointed. At the same time, for "younger" viewers, I wonder how many of them know the true story so perhaps they won't mind the "violence" being re-done yet they're going to be hampered by not knowing the characters and this is where the character development might have helped.

As I said, the story's development left me scratching my head but at the same time there were some very good things here. The opening sequences was extremely well-directed and I thought it had some nice tension. The performances were another good thing with Katie Cassidy doing a nice job in the role of Sharon Tate. Elizabeth Henstridge was also quite good. The people playing the "family" are pretty much left with no lines or anything else and in fact you never really get to see them clearly.

WOLVES AT THE DOOR pretty much ends just where you think it would get started. Again, I can respect and enjoy the short running time and there's a lot of good things here but at the same time there's some bizarre choices made.

There are a lot of terrible cinematic retellings of the Manson murders story, and this one is pretty good, and pretty accurate, although many elements were changed slightly. It also brings out some of the real horror of what happened that night. The script is a bit ham-handed at times, but the casting is very good, especially Katie Cassidy as Sharon Tate. What is also very effective is how we almost never see the faces of any of the killers, they are always creeping around in shadows adding to the horror of this terrible night. Again, many of the Manson movies are really bad, but this one is accurate and pretty damn scary.