What’s worse than summer ending and having to go back to school? How about transferring to an elite boarding school in the middle of the year? You’ve probably heard me talk endlessly about the hundreds of cardboard placeholders I got from Blockbuster when they were going out of business. One of the placeholders I had was for a film called Cry_Wolf. Something about the killer’s half-lit neon orange mask terrified me beyond belief. When my mom made me a display out of the placeholders, I was glad that Cry_Wolf was not one of the ones she picked. It wouldn’t be until my short-lived job at FYE in 2011 that I would finally have the guts to watch Cry_Wolf. It quickly became one of my favorites.
Cry_Wolf: A Hidden Gem in Aughts Horror
After getting kicked out of his previous boarding school, Owen Matthews (Julian Morris) arrives at Westlake Preparatory Academy. He quickly makes friends with Dodger (Lindy Booth) and his roommate, Tom (Jared Padalecki). Owen’s first night at Westlake is spent in the old chapel, where he is set to play a round of the lying game with the rest of Dodger and Tom’s friends. A quick display of critical thinking establishes Owen as a unique addition to their friend group. Owen’s addition to the crew brings a new version of the lying game when they decide to involve the rest of the school. On the heels of a local murder, Dodger and Owen blend reality and fiction when they create The Wolf. But it soon turns out that their creation may be more than a silly little email thread.
Before becoming a waning Blumhouse slop-maker, co-writer/director Jeff Wadlow slashed into the subgenre with this rowdy, slice-of-life slasher flick. Cry_Wolf didn’t intend to shake up the subgenre; rather, it accepted the slasher film for what it became and comfortably existed within those boundaries. Wadlow and co-writer/producer Beau Bauman utilized the somewhat carefree lives of teens and crafted horror around the things they knew and loved.
AIM and Chain Emails: Nostalgia in Horror
While I wasn’t an AIM kid, the utilization of AIM and email threads was prevalent in my life at this point. It also highlighted the fear felt in people like my mother, who wouldn’t let me have a Myspace account because you never know who’s on the other end of the keyboard. That fear is important in creating the horror and drama that surrounds Cry_Wolf. Everyone born before the year 2000 probably remembers the rampant chain emails that plagued our inboxes. It’s truly a surprise that chain emails weren’t a bigger thing in aughts horror. Cry_Wolf utilizes the creation of the chain email as the true catalyst of the film and allows AIM to really take the forefront on the technological aspects. From there, all hell breaks loose.
Cry_Wolf is a brash-looking film. From its Scream-like cover image to the overexposed, harshly lit visuals, Cry_Wolf has you wading in an of-its-time amount of film grain. What makes this film distinct from most others of its time is its soundtrack. Rather than assaulting our ears with the ever-dominant Nu metal/fart rock, we get a fairly ear-pleasing, Sugar Ray-esque soundtrack. Cry_Wolf should be rife with Korn, Sevendust, or at least some Goldfinger! But it’s not. The music we get is oddly complementary to the film’s garish visual style.
The Ultimate Slasher Villain
One of the reasons this film deserves to be talked about more is because of how truly great (by definition) the antagonist is. If you haven’t seen the film, then prepare for a major spoiler. It turns out that the entire friend group is playing a prank on Owen because he ruined the fun they were having with their game. BUT Dodger places a loaded gun in Professor Walker’s (Jon Bon Jovi) desk. Owen uses that gun to kill their professor when he’s led to believe that the professor has been the one committing the murders. The stinger of the film is that Owen realizes Dodger orchestrated this entire thing to facilitate the death of Professor Walker (after she learned he was seeing another (dead) student).
There are three rules to the lying game. Avoid suspicion, manipulate your friends, and eliminate your enemies. That’s exactly what Dodger does. She never cared about creating this gigantic [basically] ARG that involves the whole school. Dodger killed the student that Professor Walker was sleeping with, and she wanted him dead as retribution. Owen was the conduit that could make that happen.
Why Cry_Wolf Outsmarts Scream
You’ve heard me talk, ad nauseam, on the topic that Scream ruined the slasher subgenre. Cry_Wolf is one of the few films to outsmart Scream. Wadlow and Bauman expertly crafted one of the aughts’ greatest villains. Dodger uses every gift and talent she has to skew the outcome into the specific way she wants. Her cunningness and manipulation tactics are unparalleled in the subgenre.
Cry_Wolf is a diamond in the rough. Set in the middle of the aughts remakes of 80s classics and J-horror, it stands out as a very confident film. It may not have the tightest script, best acting, or most blood, but it knows what it is. And if you’ve ever wanted to see Gary Cole try a British accent, this is the film for you.
