Out Come the Wolves - New Release Review
Director: Adam MacDonald
Starring: Missy Peregrym, Joris Jarsky, Damon Runyan
Written by: Enuka Okuma, Adam MacDonald, Joris Jarsky
Produced by: Eric Birnberg, Thomas Vencelides
Cinematography by: Christian Bielz
Original Score by: Lee Malia
Synopsis:
At a cabin deep in the wilderness, a weekend of hunting turns to mayhem and a fight for survival when a pack of wolves attack a man, his female best friend and her fiancé.
Thoughts:
Although Adam MacDonald's tense thriller has some gripping and gruesome moments in the final act, sadly there's just not enough meat on the bones here to really make it stand out of a crowd.
Missy Peregrym plays Sophie, a seasoned hunter who invites her oldest and dearest friend Kyle to join her and her new fiancé Nolan at a remote cabin in the woods for a hunting trip and a good old catch up. Kyle and Nolan have never met in person before but they know enough about each other, particularly Nolan, who is aware that Kyle and Sophie once slept with each other. Although the two get on fairly well, mainly through their love and admiration for Sophie, there is an air of tension present from the outset that bubbles to the surface even more after an evening of alcohol consumption.
The first 30 odd minutes of the film is basically just Sophie and Kyle rekindling their old friendship, which is described as being more of a brother/sister thing, with Nolan in the background trying to work. Nolan is a writer whose current project revolves around hunting, another reason for this planned trip.
Although it's filmed really well using intriguing camera angles with an invasive nature, I wasn't really digging the vibes from the trio until the actual hunting part of the film begins. I appreciated what the film was trying to achieve in building some tension between Kyle and Nolan but it did kinda feel like we had seen all this done better before. There's some cheesy scenes early on that didn't land well with me. A montage ripped straight from 80s cinema just felt out of place. I think the acting is fine during the first half of the film but the trio really upped their game when Kyle and Nolan enter the woods. There's a fantastic exchange between Missy and Joris Jarsky, who plays Kyle, that really got me and instantly perked my interest.
One thing I think Adam MacDonald does fantastically well is to throw us into the deep end with the characters during their assault. The initial attack is pretty terrifying and gloriously bloody and the heart-racing action sequences in the dense forest are beautifully shot. There's a second attack from the pack of wolves deep into the film that is brutal and MacDonald captures the unmitigated terror and absolute desperation brilliantly, with some really impressive gory make up effects.
There's a bit of an attempt to make the confrontation between human and wolves personal, which doesn't really work especially for me because I always side with the animals. However Missy Peregrym is superb in this role and is a worthy final girl of sorts, even though there's only 3 characters in play here.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️½
-Gavin Logan
'Out Come the Wolves' is available to stream on Shudder from Novemebr 29th
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