Cry_Wolf (DVD)

When Cry_Wolf came out a few months back, Focus did a quickie red carpet premiere and did not screen the film for critics — almost always a bad sign. Almost. Cry_Wolf is not actually a bad movie but it's not a great one, either.

The setting is an elite prep school Somewhere Back East, where a transfer student has just joined the fold. He’s a handsome Brit named, what else, Owen (Julian Morris), and while his background is questionable, he’s quickly snapped up by the meanest, poshest clique in the school. They’re led by a tall, redheaded bad girl called Dodger (Lindy Booth), who likes to play mind games. Before long, everyone is gathered in the chapel under the cover of night playing a really boring-looking game in which a liar is marked by the leader as a “wolf”— the rest of the “sheep” have to flush him or her out. (The DVD has a few extended and alternate versions of this already overly long, bloated scene.)

When a local young woman’s body is found in the woods bordering the school, the clique decides it would be fun to fan the flames and spread an email rumor that it’s the work of a serial killer called The Wolf. They say he’s terrorized several other prep schools in the past, and that he always starts by leaving a slaughtered townie for someone to find. The what-if here is that the real murderer reads the emails and decides to become The Wolf for real. Pretty soon, no one trusts their friends — or strangers… Owen is new to Westlake Academy, after all. But when he becomes the target of The Wolf’s unwanted attention, no one is sure what to believe.

The acting by the mostly unknown young cast — Morris and Booth are joined by Ethan Cohn, Paul James, Jesse Janzen, Sandra McCoy, Jared Padalecki, and Kristy Wu — is wickedly good. The story about the power of gossip and rumors, while nothing new, is set up well and will keep most folks guessing as the movie progresses. Jon Bon Jovi isn’t bad in a supporting role as a wolfish (sorry) teacher, and it’s fascinating to hear a British accent come out of Gary Cole’s mouth.

Unfortunately the other aspects of the film is so uneven it’s almost as though it was directed by Sybil (but Jeff Wadlow takes the credit). Some of the movie seems over-directed to the point of complicated choreography,  while other parts are just thrown away (or explained in flashback). Some of the lines are clever and funny, but then someone will say something so lame it could only come from Dialog For Dummies. Some of the cinematography is stylish, but it’s not only too dark, it makes all the actors look much worse than they do in person. Some of the score is strong, but it’s undermined by cheesy pop songs that will only date the movie in years to come. The editing goes from innovative to staid. And so on. I found myself by turns zoning out, then suddenly zooming in — which makes it a very hard movie to review. I guess you could say it’s got bark, but no bite.

The unrated version offers a few more blood drops and little more skin (all from the female cast, of course). Additional release material includes a rather pompous, over-rehearsed commentary from Wadlow and producer/co-writer Beau Bauman, plus deleted and extended scenes with optional commentary that’s passably fun as the two sometimes contradict each other. Most interesting were the casting tapes of the actors who were chosen, and while the commentary from Wadlow and Bauman is rather too swoony (of course these were the actors they cast, so what else are they going to say?) they also offer up some interesting anecdotes.

Cry_Wolf is a solid rental, but buy with caution.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson