When it comes to creating horror, films often look outside our natural world to make audiences feel uncomfortable. Whether it’s ghosts or aliens, using the unknown can be an incredibly effective way to get some reliable scares. Out Come the Wolves, the latest film from Canadian director Adam MacDonald, recognizes the horror that exists in our natural world too. What we don’t know definitely scares us, but what about things that can and do happen to people? What happens if you get caught in a forest that happens to be the hunting ground for a pack of wild wolves? Well, Out Come the Wolves gives you a very gory and occasionally tense answer to that very question. The movie stars Missy Peregrym as Sophie, Joris Jarsky as her long-time best friend Kyle, and Damon Runyan as Sophie’s boyfriend Nolan. So does this movie sink its teeth in you, or is it all bark and no bite?
My Thoughts
The movie instantly pulled me in with its opening shots. Like in Azrael, I very much loved the panning scenic shots of the woods. It could be that I grew up with lots of areas like that around, but the establishing shots were beautiful.
As the movie progresses, I found the camera work and the editing really go a long way in creating anxiety and tension. Quick cuts from someone prepping the four-wheeler to all of a sudden driving down the trail creates a feeling of unease. The movie does things like this very well throughout the lean 86 minute runtime.
Speaking of the runtime, I really respect a movie that comes in under 90 minutes. Adriana has been taking months (ironically) to write an article about the “tight 90”. To her point, it feels like movies these days are getting longer. Now, that alone isn’t a bad thing, but the longer your movie is, the harder it is to keep an audience engaged. Pacing is everything in a movie. If you find your mind wandering when you’re watching a movie, chances are that the movie isn’t paced well enough, so you’re not engaged with it. I can’t remember the last time I’ve watched a movie this lean, and it was really refreshing to see a movie this focused.
Of that lean runtime though, there are only a few moments in the movie that are the kind of tense thriller sequences that you might expect. I felt they were all really effective, but I wish there were a bit more of them. Outside of those moments, we’re spending time with our three main characters and this is where the movie really didn’t work as well for me.
The performances themselves were good enough, but it was more the writing I struggled with. There are a lot of cliches that make themselves obvious right from the start. Characters act in particular ways and do things that seem unnaturally mean or over the top. Unfortunately, a good chunk of that 86 minute runtime is spent with these characters outside the more tense and dangerous moments, and I think we definitely would have benefitted from less time with the characters before things really get going. Although, I have to give a special shoutout to the music the characters listened to which included some Canadian classics from Honeymoon Suite and Our Lady Peace!
The real issue for me though is that the dynamic between the three characters becomes apparent almost right away, and then we just spend more and more time reaffirming that. Eventually, there’s a moment between two of the characters that starts off the tension, but I really didn’t like the choices the writers made. Without giving anything away, a character acts a certain way and makes certain choices that made more sense for the other character to do. I’m not a fan of criticism that goes, “Well it’s not what I would have done,” and this isn’t that kind of critique, either. The issue was that it didn’t quite make sense for the characters to act the way they did and do the things they do. If you just swapped their actions, I think the movie would’ve felt a bit more sensible and cohesive.
Verdict
Overall, I was very mixed with this movie. There are some genuine moments of tension and gore that are really unsettling, but there aren’t enough of those moments. The time spent with the main characters also felt repetitive and took up too much of the short runtime. The high points of this movie were definitely the more technical aspects. There wasn’t enough here for me to be able to recommend the movie, but if the setup sounds interesting to you, the movie’s lean runtime means you won’t feel like you wasted time, even if you don’t enjoy the movie.
Out Come the Wolves hits theatres in the USA and Canada on August 30th and will also be available on streaming as well.
Adriana Wiszniewska