There are many different types of survival horror, but the formula is the same thrown a few arms into the mix with defenseless individuals who are then pursued by a bloodthirsty maniac. That permanently crazy person can either be a fiercely terrifying jackass a terrifying demon, or even nature itself. To make my case even more believable, let’s look at realism. In my opinion, the more realistic it becomes, the more appealing it is. So all I desire is for something compelling that could occur on the trail and I will be their slave.
In 2014, director Adam MacDonald made his mark in the subgenre by releasing Backcountry which also turned out to be his debut work. He made it clear that a bear would be the stalker in the film. Now a decade later, MacDonald has released Out Come The Wolves and I bet you can’t guess what’s stalking our unsuspecting victims this time around. From what I expected, I feel it wouldn’t be much different than before.
After years of separation, Kyle (Joris Jarsky) reunites with his childhood friend Sophi (Missy Peregrym) alongside her fiance Nolan (Damon Runyan) who come to a remote hunting cabin in the woods for a weekend getaway. Call it an irony but Nolan, a journalist was hired to write an article on hunting season but the catch is that he is unsure if he wants to kill an animal. That’s where Kyle becomes useful for him. Although he and Sophie grew up in the woods hunting wild game, now she is a vegan who doesn’t want to kill for sport and wants Kyle to do the job for her. To add on, everyone can sense the awkwardness before the tension grows between the boys. In the past, when they drank together, Kyle and Sophie had an affair and now Nolan feels insecure about their relationship so the hatred is brewing.
It begins with some mesmerizing tracking shots that traverse through thick forest and ends with a homely cabin in the woods. And from that vantage point, the film jumps right into a series of tracking shots that engage in cabin construction. Now, approximately 45 minutes of screentime is dedicated to two males trying to develop chemistry but it ends up feeling a bit tedious. The only shining aspect of this movie, Peregrym, features in the first half of the film. She is spectacular as Sophie, the once upon a time hunter who retired her bow and arrows long ago. During the bow training exercise intended to prove to the audience that she is the superhero and hero she was, she deliberately misses the target. However, the male twin characters annoyed me terribly. I felt like tossing my phone because all I could do was wait for the action to begin. Runyan, who plays the vain journalist and a hot shot boyfriend, made me cringe when he pretended to be Kyle’s macho man. Then the pitiful friend character played by Jarsky was heartbreaking. He was crazy about Sophie but shamelessly lacked the courage to woo her.
If you dare to tough out through acts one and two, the final thirty minutes will prove to be a beautiful treat for you. The wolves were the last thing I was going to endure and for good reason considering the performance they delivered. So as the wolves come in closer, shooting a single round with a rifle and using a bow will be the only effective approaches for the men to use in order to fight off the meat-hungry wolves. Brutal, savage, and oh-so-quick, the wolves made sure to give their audience a truly heart-stopping performance. It’s not always you see effects done in such a raw and real way which is why this bit had me excited, and impressively I was binge-watching this piece and every time the sequence would come I would stop it to appreciate the color and makeup. They deserve applause for their great work.
The onset of this movie could’ve easily been cut down to a 30-minute action short with a bit of editing and it wouldn’t have affected my viewing experience one bit. For a movie like this, I can completely disregard the characters involved and still have a blast with the ending. This isn’t my sort of survival horror as 9 out of 10 times, everything pre-action is largely irrelevant. All the narrative build-up can be condensed to the fight sequence. Give me just the ending scene and I’ll be content. Sadly, this is a movie that tries to add a bit too much lore and ends up diluting the primary story of nature overpowering a man.
But I do commend the director for getting this movie done. To accomplish that is alone praiseworthy for anyone in this industry. I’m afraid I can’t recommend this movie. I don’t mind watching the last fight scene if the movie happens to be on but that’s about it for the movie.
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