The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) is a B-grade movie with a Gucci belt

 

The Wolf of Snow Hollow merely donned the mantle of a horror movie, but in actuality, strayed disappointingly far from it. (Image courtesy of irishfilmcritic.com)

We've been waiting a very long time for an honest-to-god werewolf flick. Long have we been served with plates upon plates of gourmet deception from various television shows like Bitten, Hemlock Grove, The Order and The Originals where their version of werewolves were either in the form of trained dogs or real life wolves with disappointing transformation sequences to boot.

When The Wolf of Snow Hollow was announced and marketing released stills of their version of the monster, we were honestly excited. That is, until we sat through the entire movie. 

The Wolf of Snow Hollow is directed by Jim Cummings, who also stars as the lead actor in this movie. Labeled a comedy horror, The Wolf of Snow Hollow tells the story of Officer John Marshall, a sheriff's deputy in the small town of Snow Hollow, Utah, who is a recovering alcoholic and a divorcee struggling with his own personal demons whilst juggling the role of stand-in sheriff for the town. On top of his already burdening personal issues, Officer Marshall is wracked with a tremendous amount of stress when Snow Hollow is besieged by a sudden wave of murders from something unknown. 

Acting alongside Jim Cummings is the late Robert Forster (this was his final film role), Riki Lindhome, Chloe East, and Youtuber Jimmy Tatro. 

Forster addressing the officers of the Sheriffs office before hunting down the killer (Image courtesy of nerdist.com)

The Wolf of Snow Hollow, despite a budget of US$2 million (RM8.2 million), plays out like a B-grade movie that's been shot for theatres. The storyline is convoluted in some areas, but the script, acting and overall theme of the movie were pretty decent. 

There are several plots in the movie that viewers can focus on, with the main being the murders which are alluded to a vicious animal that only attacks its victims during a full moon. Others include Marshall's fight with alcoholism; his relationship with his daughter, Jenna; his relationship with the sheriff; him handling the stress from the murders; his relationship with the townsfolk; the different and interesting characters in Snow Hollow and the continuously on-going investigation of the murders. 

All these themes in the movie as well as the characters themselves create a very interesting small town vibe that reminds us of the movie Pottersville (2017). 

However, as the movie progresses, it does fall short of a good movie as somewhere along the lines, the script and general flow is hard to follow and the editing, although somewhat acceptable, pulls our attention away from making the acting and conversations memorable. 

                                                       (Image courtesy of denofgeek.com)

There were a few scenes which we particularly enjoyed including Jenna's outburst against her father after she was attacked that made her personality and the whole feud with Marshall real as well as the campy conversations Marshall has with the towns people. 

🐳 AHOY! Spoilers ahead. Take heed, me hearties! YO HO! 🐳
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We were truly disappointed to realize that the murderer, who was assumed to be a werewolf because of the attacks during a full moon and the level of mutilation, turned out to be the local taxidermist in a werewolf costume. 

After waiting for a half-decent werewolf movie with lore and legends, we were fed with more deceit. 

Honestly, it's movies like this that give us trust issues. It was a half-baked twist that we didn't enjoy. 

(Image courtesy of The Missing Reel)

The movie itself, if it wasn't a horror comedy motion picture, but a B-grade art house film would have painted it pretty decent, but because they tried to pass it off as a motion picture-quality movie with the type of marketing a motion picture movie deserves, it just fell short of a good movie. 

Also, the twist at the end was not to our liking. A lot of times, movies try to be relatable and logical, but this one just made us sad and depressed and we guess we'll just have to wait for a proper werewolf movie to come out to be truly appeased. 

All-in-all, Asian Does Horror gives The Wolf of Snow Hollow 👻👻 ghost emojis out of five. 


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