On the surface, Cry Wolf appears to be yet another mindless teen horror. You could definitely be forgiven for your assumptions because it certainly validates some of the stereotypes associated with such a label. After all, it is set in a school, the main characters are a suitable cross-section of teen culture, there’s a crazy killer on the loose and everyone is seemingly getting bumped off, though not before a few false alarms and fleeting glimpses of the killer. But, as uniform and unadventurous as it may sound, the film’s theme of deception is something that you should bear in mind.

Trying not to step on the list of stereotypes I reeled off above, Cry Wolf’s setting is a swanky boarding school named ‘Westlake Preparatory Academy’. The recent murder of a local young woman is unsurprisingly a major talking point for the school’s students, especially for one group of friends – the new British kid Owen included – who decide there is some fun to be had in deceiving the whole school with an e-mail detailing the woman’s supposed killer and their previous and intended victims. A torrent of suspicion and deception ensues as the friends become paranoid about whether or not someone is following their prophetic message. Of course, in a game of lies, how can you know who is telling the truth?

Having been handed a rather tame 12 certification by the BBFC, I was sceptical about whether Cry Wolf could actually be classed as horror per se. Pre-teen films don’t tend to cause sleepless nights and there’s a rather strict limitation applied to the number of deaths allowed, which whilst suiting films like The Others and The Haunting, a prospective slasher such as Cry Wolf may not quite enjoy what its certification implies. Seeing a so-called serial killer film with a 12 rating is a recipe for a violent flow of preconceptions before the disc even hits the tray; I personally almost cast it aside in favour of something a bit more, well, scary? Back to the point: Cry Wolf may seem to take on the guise of a slasher but the actual murder scenes are rather oblique, you’ll rarely see any fatal contact between the characters. However, without going into the plot too much, Wadlow had good reason for such choices, but even when the reasons for the obscurity become apparent, you still can’t help but feel a little cheated.

It’s all well and good constructing the film’s intense (yes, tongue firmly in cheek) scenes in a meticulous way so as not to reveal the apex of the plot. But in Cry Wolf it really makes for lacklustre viewing, with scenes coming across as both clumsy and implausible; what kind of killer slashes sideways and only a few inches from their own body? And these supposed murder scenes are so short that blinking will leave you oblivious and lost – look away in the last 10 minutes and you’ll turn back around to find that the entire cast has suddenly disappeared.

Now that I’ve made a rather fitting segue to the subject of cast, it is made up of relatively unknown actors, as per most films of this nature, although you may recognise Dodger (Lindy Booth) from Zack Snyder’s 2004 re-make of Dawn of the Dead and – how could I forget – Jon Bon Jovi, who plays a teacher at the academy, though doesn’t really deliver a memorable performance. All the teens come across as slightly-too-enthusiastic drama students which isn’t helped by the rather dismal dialogue, there’s only so much group specific slang a person can handle.

I guess my opening statement was a little bit misleading. Cry Wolf is most definitely another crappy teen horror flick, but at least it has a marginally astute storyline which managed to engage me for longer than half an hour; I turned off I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer before I could finish saying the title, go figure. Cry Wolf is a film that will make the majority of its revenue via video rentals, as 10 year olds look for cheap Friday night scares. Its attempt at adding an intelligent twist to a tried and tested premise is somewhat successful, although overall it really does fall short of the mark.

Director: Jeff Wadlow
Starring: Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki, Jesse Janzen, Gary Cole, Jon Bon Jovi.
Year: 2005
Genre: Horror/Mystery
Buy: Amazon UK