Cry Wolf (2005)

Plot
When a young woman is found dead on campus, a group of teenage friends decide to further scare their classmates by playing a game. They spread a rumour around online that a serial killer named "The Wolf" committed the murder and is planning to strike again. The group describe his next victims based on people they know and also describe how they will be killed. The trouble is that the victims do turn up dead. It seems that someone has taken the fictional killer to the next level and now the group don't know where the lies end and the truth begins. Who will be next?

Review
Scream has a lot to answer for. If I've said it once before, I'll say it a million times again in the future when writing these reviews. Slasher films never had the sophistication or intelligence to create and weave together an elaborate story full of twists and turns. It used to be one unstoppable killer who wasn't very hard to identify, a bunch of teenagers and lots of sharp instruments. There was little effort made in characterisation, plot and even scaring people for that matter. That was until Wes Craven turned up and decided to make slasher films "smart" by making the characters aware of what is going on by constantly referencing other films. It also made audiences second guess everything that happened. Now they expect some level of intelligence in their slasher films. They can't just accept that there's a killer on the loose. They now have to know motives, past relationships with other characters and they want lots of swerves so that you don't know who is killing until the final reel. Please just keep it simple!

Cry Wolf attempts the ultimate swerve and one that very few horror films have ever pulled off with any success. Is what we are seeing on the screen actually happening or is it part of the game? April Fool's Day back in the 80s managed to pull off the "it's all a big trick" thing with relative success but that was before audiences became clued up as to the tricks of the slasher trade. Now the many twists, turns and double turns just leave audiences shrugging their shoulders and saying "I wish I was watching Scream again." Some films like this one try way too hard to confuse the audience so much that they can't pull apart the script. I guess that's a good thing because you'll be tearing this baby to shreds if you could be bothered to stop and piece it all together. But because the film blows, you'll not waste your time. It also seems well out of place with it's surrounding brethren. A lot of modern slashers have evolved from the annoying 90s post-Scream phase concerned with twists and have just gone back to making splatter films from the 80s. Give me the dumb splatter any day! At least Scream peppered it's intelligence with some legitimately tense stalking moments. Here the filmmakers fall victim to the MTV school of editing and eliminate any tension that they may have created with jerky editing and quick cuts to and from the action. This is if you do manage to wait out for the deaths to come (save for the opening kill, you'll be waiting what seems like an eternity for "The Wolf" to show up and do his thing). I'm sorry for continually referencing Scream but it's clear what this film wanted to be.