Scream of the Wolf (1974)

Undescribable Perfection

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

This made for TV movie is from Dan Curtis...and that should come as no surprise as Curtis made a living making low-budget horror films and TV shows--such as the original "Dark Shadows" as well as excellent made for TV films about Dracula, Kolchak (the reporter that investigates monster sightings), possessed African dolls, Frankenstein and others. Most of his work was very good though I wouldn't place "Scream of the Wolf" among his best films.Some creature has been tearing folks to pieces and John (Peter Graves) is a hunter who's been given the task of killing whatever it is. However, he soon notices that the footprints go from a wolf-like creature to human...but he won't allow himself to believe it's a werewolf. When he tries to get help from a clearly nutty associate, Byron (Clint Walker) has a strange reaction--he's totally disinterested in killing the creature and even seems to be completely ambivalent about all the deaths!! Clearly the viewer is being led to believe that Byron is most likely the wolf-man. And, clearly, Walker's character is about as subtle as a 2x4 upside your head! He's a super freaky weirdo and Walker looks as if he had fun playing this guy. And, although Graves is the leading man in the film, your attention is drawn to Walker whenever he's on the screen. So is Byron the werewolf or is there some other explanation? And, how does this movie end up being very much like the classic film "The Most Deadly Game"?Considering the budget for this film was pretty low and the ABC movies were made quickly, how they handled the whole werewolf aspect of the story was an interesting idea that worked very well. Not the best movie of the week I've seen but very memorable and fun...in a kooky sort of way. Well worth seeing...and a lot better than the surprisingly low overall score of 5.1 (as of this review).

Scream of the Wolf (1974) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Made-for-TV horror film from Dan Curtis has a game hunter (Peter Graves) coming out of retirement to track down a wolf that has been killing people but he soon fears that it's actually a werewolf. Another game hunter (Clint Walker) in town refuses to help in the case and obviously suspicion falls on him. SCREAM OF THE WOLF isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but with such a short running time, a great atmosphere and some fun performances there's no question that fans of the genre should enjoy it. I'll give Curtis a lot credit because he really does quite a bit with obviously very little money. I thought the director did a really good job at building up a rather dark atmosphere and this is especially true during the attack sequences. Another good aspect of this happens with the beautiful scenes in the darken woods with the fog machines doing their job. Graves offers up the laid back type of performance we'd expect from him and he does a nice job with the role. Walker easily steals the film as the main suspect and I really liked how he played guilty so obviously well. Jo Ann Pflug is good as the love interest and Philip Carey is nice as the sheriff. The one major problem with the film is that the screenplay makes it clear who the killer is and if this doesn't turn out to be the case then there's an obvious twist. I won't ruin which way the film goes but I think more of a mystery would have helped things especially since we never actually see the wolf as the film wants to keep us in the dark as to who or what is doing the killings. Still, SCREAM OF THE WOLF has enough going for it to make it worth viewing.

++Major Spoilers++ Former big game hunter and now deranged lunatic Byron Douglas, Clint Walker, comes up with some far-out ideas about life death and the human condition as well as how to bring a little life and excitement into the lives of the people in town by savagely murdering them and at the same time making it look like some kind of werewolf did it.Even though the movie tries to be suspenseful and keeps you guessing to who the killer is as soon as you see Douglas and how crazed and unstable Douglas is. Just by listening to his off the wall philosophy by talking about how one is most alive just when he's at he moment of death. This makes you almost look over his shoulder to see if you can catch a glimpse of the men in white with stun guns and butterfly nets ready to grab and restrain Douglas in a padded room at the local loony bin. You watch the movie hoping that whats on the screen is not really happening. In that that those making the film are just trying to keep you off the track by making you think that Douglas is the killer when the real killer is really someone else in the cast that you don't suspect. Still you just can't convince yourself that there's anyone more certain to be the killer then Douglas is and you end up being right.Were told that Douglas was attacked by some super wolf some time back in Canada which almost killed him and left him in the condition that he's in now. Trying to explain his mental and emotional state and at the same time throws off suspicion about him being the killer but even that falls apart at the end of the movie.The only way I could follow the story is by realizing that Douglas is crazy, which wasn't hard to do, so whatever he said and did in the movie made sense only to himself not to anyone else. The end of the film ripped off the movie "The Most Dangerous Game" by Douglas pitting friend and former hunting buddy now writer Peter Graves, John Wetherby, against himself in a life and death struggle to see who's fit and strong enough to survive. Even then Douglas cheated by having a vicious wolf as a partner and leaving Wetherby with a rifle with no bullets in it.Wetherby had to run for some distance to find a box in the woods with only two slugs that Douglas left for him. When it came to the hand to hand combat that Douglas craved for Wetherby pulled out a gun that he secretly had on him a blew Douglas away. Since Douglas murdered six people there was no point for all that ridicules game playing with him. A major flaw in the movie was why the police never thought of arresting Douglas even though he was the most evident and conspicuous suspect in town. It was nothing but a waste of time trying to figure out Douglas' weird philosophy and sermonizing during the movie because it was just that, weird.

Anyway, the overlying problem with The Scream of the Wolf is that it hints in a certain direction and then goes exactly in that direction, rendering the entire movie a tired exercise in horror movie making which takes you where you knew all along it was going to go. The film starts with a brutal murder, and the cops investigating dance around the solution, which the audience has been yelling at the screen and which would be ridiculously obvious to them if they knew they were in a horror film. The movie is not scary even for a second, but that doesn't really matter because there's exactly a single movie made in the 1970s that's still scary. What matters is that there is a character named Byron, the prime suspect through most of the movie, who does not serve the purpose that it is imperative his character serve.(spoilers) Byron is what you might call the obvious answer. The suspect who simply can't be guilty just because of the fact that his guilt is so obvious. That would be like if Shephard was the real killer in Twisted. Byron's purpose in this movie is to distract the audience and, more importantly, the cops, from the real solution by acting cocky and guilty (which he does every second he's onscreen) in order to throw us, and the cops, off the right track. What Byron is NOT supposed to do is run around acting guilty because he is. Not only is there no twist whatsoever in this movie (an absolutely essential element in a horror mystery), but the real killer is not even a werewolf, which the title implies, but nothing more than a dog trained to kill by an obsessed hunter. Was THAT the twist?? I really hope it wasn't, because it's not the kind of twist that leaves you slapping your forehead because you hadn't already guessed it, it's the kind of twist that leaves you slapping your forehead because you just spent 80 minutes watching this movie.