Cry Wolf

Cry Wolf
Focus Features (August 26, 2005)
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Cast: Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki, Jon Bon Jovi

View the trailer


In the epic tradition of You've Got Mail and Mac and Me, Cry Wolf continues the trend of getting some kind of mega sponsorship deal, and then basing a movie around it. This is ever apparent when the beginning of the trailer shows a "creepy" and "foreboding" instant messaging conversation between Wolf3x6 and OwenM87. If you'd rather not spend any time watching the trailer, then I'll give you a quick summary of how the convo went...

Wolf3x6: hello
OwenM87: who is this?
Wolf3x6: did you hear about the murders on campus?
OwenM87: lol
OwenM87: is this tom?
Wolf3x6: i know what you did last summer
OwenM87: rotfl! u r 2 funny!
Wolf3x6: im gonna gut u like a fish
OwenM87: lol lol lol
OwenM87: u wanna cyber?
Wolf3x6 has left the chat.

Rumor has it the original script of the movie had this going on for two more hours. Fortunately for us, it appears that idea was scrapped in favor of a clichéd teen slasher flick. No word yet on whether Jennifer Love Hewitt or Neve Campbell make cameos, but the fact that Jon Bon Jovi is in this movie raises its potential immensely.

Anyway, the AIM convo ends and, despite no other evidence to the contrary, we're immediately shown that Wolf3x6 must be the killer, as some chilling music overlays a montage of some brutal murders. Sadly, the trailer doesn't go much into the "plot" of the movie—and for that I had to dock the trailer a few stars—though this is helped by a couple shots of the perilled teens jumping into a swimming pool. After all, if horror films have taught us nothing else, it's that beautiful people + water + blood = success. If the movie ends up getting an underwater lesbian love scene, then I think Opie Ron Howard may have to wait a year to pick up another Oscar.

Regardless, the money shot of the trailer comes at the end when viewers are told to use our cell phones to "text your AIM screen name... to get in on the hunt." Having thus established the marketing tie-in, the trailer becomes a sort of interactive manhunt, where participants get to take part in the thrill of being hunted by a merciless killer. Presumably, AOL will use each person's screen name ethically and certainly will refrain from selling them to spammers or those who would otherwise send you instant messanges telling you about the wonders of "Ccialiss to. help you have gr8 scexxx!"

Ultimately, though it has promise, the trailer falls short of the standards set by teen horrors of yesteryear like Urban Legend II: Final Cut or Valentine, and it leaves in viewers' mouths the lingering taste of bile and vinegar. In the end, the trailer to Cry Wolf ends up being like that girl you met at the party last week—kinda pretty, and gives off the impression that she'll rock your world harder than a Bon Jovi concert, but ultimately she's simply a tease who only wants to get your...hopes...up.