Movie Review: "The Wolf of Snow Hollow" Asks, Are Wolfmen Misogynists Too?

Time’s up, cursed beasts.

This Halloween, why rewatch An American Werewolf in London (the only great wolfman movie) when you can investigate The Wolf of Snow Hollow, which might now officially be first runner up?

(… apologies to Brotherhood of the Wolf and that one scene from What We Do in the Shadows, and literally no one else, especially not The Wolfman, Red Riding Hood or the Twilight sequels.)

This is the latest darkly comic melodrama from writer-director-star Jim Cummings, following his awesome (to use the traditional definition, but yes, it was also sick) debut Thunder Road.

His sensibilities as a filmmaker are so strange, closer to Bong Joon-ho’s (specifically in The Host and Parasite) than any other American filmmaker, which makes this wolfman fable so unique. South Korea’s cinema has never been afraid of marrying histrionics with slapstick, and neither is Cummings.

More than your typical werewolf thriller, this one focuses on the anguish and stress that torments his spiralling small town police officer, caused by a string of seeming lycanthropic murders. One by one, women are slain in a grisly manner—enough to make you turn from the screen—and though Cummings’ Officer John Marshall insists it’s just a run-of-the-mill serial killer, the evidence suggests something obscenely strong with claws and sharp teeth is actually responsible. As the townsfolk grow frustrated with Officer Marshall and the police department’s inability to arrest the culprit, his own inner monster (an alcoholic with a habit for sexism) emerges. It’s a metaphor, duh.

Cummings, who played a man whose rage spiked from zero to 100 in Thunder Road as well, emphasises the historical subtext of the wolfman myth in this, with a newly-woke Marshall 'splaining to Officer Julia Robson (a steady and sure Riki Lindhome) they were invented to excuse or dismiss violence against women. The goal here is to overlay a subtly unfolding crime story with an explicit denouncement of misogyny. The final line, a college dude referring to Cummings’ daughter (played by Chloe East) as “fresh meat”, seals his intentions. They don’t call it a wolf whistle for nothing.

However, The Wolf of Snow Hollow is thrilling and chilling in the literal sense too, with the mystery of the beast held to the last possible moment (and only guessable in advance by those paying close attention, a fun test to see if you can solve it before Marshall does, as so many townsfolk insist they could).

The film is also very funny in unexpected ways, and at unexpected times, and beautifully photographed by Natalie Kingston, with a gorgeous climactic showdown amid police lights in the snow. It even contains the final performance from Robert Forster, as Marshall’s dad, the declining town sheriff. He gets the best dialogue, which encapsulates the surprising turns that Cummings makes as a screenwriter and director. How about this bit, when he shakenly tells Marshall he’s never seen a victim’s body quite like the cadaver that just showed up, and then turns to his computer: “Oh my God, eleven new emails on this thing this morning. Jesus Chris, this is worse than my birthday.”

4/5

The Wolf of Snow Hollow is now available to rent or buy digitally. Rated MA15+.