Cry Wolf

When a local townie is found dead, a group of teens who played an innocent game of lying, decieving, and accusing, they decide to go full throttle. The teens write a mass e-mail about a fake killer named the "The Wolf" who goes from prep school to prep school killing, always shooting a townie in the face first, then attacking the school, their lie becomes the truth. One by one, everything in the e-mail becomes real, until it's a race against time to save each other. Who is the wolf--and who`s next? You Lie...You Die.

<<<< Cast >>>>

Julian Morris .... Owen

Lindy Booth .... Dodger

Jared Padalecki .... Tom

Jesse Janzen .... Randall

Paul James .... Lewis

Sandra McCoy .... Mercedes

Ethan Cohn .... Graham

Kristy Wu .... Regina

Anna Deavere Smith .... Headmaster Tinsley

Gary Cole .... Mr. Matthews

Jon Bon Jovi .... Rich Walker

At first glance when you come across a film like 'Cry Wolf' you begin the imagery of countless teen horror/thrillers running in the same mould as Scream. Although the film plays on that angle, it never claims and thankfully never develops into the same old predictable routine that such films suffer from.

The plot develops quite well, although a very vigilant viewer may be able to spot the plot twists, but I can say that they are not particluarly obvious. The main female lead, interestingly named 'Dodger' plays her role well, switching from being manipulative to a likeable innocent girl next door, it is the latter that makes the film really click. The director obviously wants you to keep guessing who the killer is and just as you figure out who it is, there is a plot change so you more confused about what is going on. It is quite obvious in what direction the film is heading and this style of 'in your face' antics by the teenagers may seem a bit of a put off.

The acting is quite poor, a bit cliche and some dodgy accents thrown in. Also there are some moments that the characters take rather baffling decions, this of course is a common problem of 'teen flicks'. The whole film is based on pretence and the power of lies, but having created such lies the characters are rather dim-witted about what is going on.

At the same time there are some clever moments in this film that help build up to the finale. One of these moments is at the party where the main lead 'Owen' finds many people walking around with the killer's costume. This is of course is very similar to a scene in Scream. At first you may think this is just a rip-off but eventually realise that the director wants you to assume this, i.e. it's the good old 'double-bluff' routine. A good thing about this film is for a long time you don't expect a hoax, or, in fact, if you are not following things closely, you may never see that the film is developing in this underhand manner. This a least keeps things interesting.

After watching the film, you may start to wonder how everything falls into place just like it was planned to (won't say who by), but then again that is your standard conclusion for the majority of movies nowadays. It is not one to stretch your intellect too much, but it does get your mind working (well, slightly) during the movie as to what may be going on.

Certainly this film won't develop into a cult movie nor does it break into new territory in this film genre, but it is a pleasant watch and beats most of the films in the same genre over the past few years.