Big Bad Wolf starts in Cameroon as brothers Charlie (Christopher Shyer) & Scott Cowley (Andrew Bowen) are on a big game hunt, however the hunters become the hunted as a big Werewolf like creature kills Scott... Jump forward 'Seven Years Later' in the US & Scott's widow Gwen (Sarah Aldrich) has married Mitch (Richard Tyson), Scott's son Derek (Trevor Duke) & Mitch don't get on & in order to impress some school mates he steals the keys to his stepfather's isolated log cabin so they can have a party there. Unfortunately while there they are attacked by the same Werewolf creature that killed Scott, only Derek & his friend Sam (Kimberly J. Brown) escape alive. Hearing about the attack Derek's uncle Charlie reveals his suspicions that Mitch is the Werewolf & that they have to kill him once & for all...
Written, produced & directed Lance W. Dreesen I am in two minds about Big Bad Wolf. Now, I am not a fan of low budget straight-to-DVD horror films shot on a camcorder & edited on a PC but this one actually started off quite well. The opening twenty odd minutes features some gore, a Werewolf, some nudity & a massacre but then it slows down to a snail's pace & becomes incredibly predictable as it goes around in circles to pad the running time out. The biggest problem is that we, the audience that is, are always fully aware of who the Werewolf is so there's no mystery or intrigue element & watching Charlie, Derek & Sam trying to figure it out is rather tedious & one might say unnecessary as we already know. We don't see the Werewolf for ages as we have to sit through several sub soap opera melodramatic sub plots. The way that Mitch killed Scott so he could marry Gwen is a good case in point, however if that was the case why does Mitch treat her so badly? Why all the rows? Why the obvious hate between the two? It just renders the plot point rather pointless in my opinion. The character's aren't great & include a pointless group of students who have no purpose other than to get killed at the end although I did quite like Sam as her character had some attitude & was pretty spunky & there is no explanation given as to why or how Mitch became a Werewolf. The film ends much the same way as it starts with teenage kids getting killed in the same log cabin & like the start only Derek & Sam survive.
Director Dreesen does alright here, the film looks reasonably good without ever being outstanding. There are obvious references to other (better) horror films including a log cabin straight from The Evil Dead (1982). The Werewolf creature looks OK but the CGI computer transformation scene looks rubbish. Unlike most Werewolf films the Werewolf in Big Bad Wolf can actually talk & is a right Freddy Krueger type as it spouts horribly unfunny one-liners as it kills people, mostly teenagers. This is one aspect of Big Bad Wolf that I really didn't like at all, the Werewolf mask's mouth doesn't move properly either so besides sounding silly it looks it. There are one or two decent gore scenes here, legs are ripped off, there are decapitated head with one shown being twisted off, there are guts, there's blood splatter, the Werewolf claws someone's throat & a scene in which the Werewolf rips a guy's head in half. There is also a short scene which implies the Werewolf has raped a teenage girl.
Technically the film is good enough, it's no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it's reasonably well made considering the budget must have been pretty low. The acting isn't going to win anyone any awards but I have seen worse. David Naughton & Clint Howard make small cameos.
Big Bad Wolf is an OK way to pass 90 odd minutes, I can't say that I overly liked it because of the talking Werewolf & an all to predictable & obvious plot which feels padded. Could have been but it could have been better, worth a watch if your a Werewolf fan but there are much better horror films out there.
Written, produced & directed Lance W. Dreesen I am in two minds about Big Bad Wolf. Now, I am not a fan of low budget straight-to-DVD horror films shot on a camcorder & edited on a PC but this one actually started off quite well. The opening twenty odd minutes features some gore, a Werewolf, some nudity & a massacre but then it slows down to a snail's pace & becomes incredibly predictable as it goes around in circles to pad the running time out. The biggest problem is that we, the audience that is, are always fully aware of who the Werewolf is so there's no mystery or intrigue element & watching Charlie, Derek & Sam trying to figure it out is rather tedious & one might say unnecessary as we already know. We don't see the Werewolf for ages as we have to sit through several sub soap opera melodramatic sub plots. The way that Mitch killed Scott so he could marry Gwen is a good case in point, however if that was the case why does Mitch treat her so badly? Why all the rows? Why the obvious hate between the two? It just renders the plot point rather pointless in my opinion. The character's aren't great & include a pointless group of students who have no purpose other than to get killed at the end although I did quite like Sam as her character had some attitude & was pretty spunky & there is no explanation given as to why or how Mitch became a Werewolf. The film ends much the same way as it starts with teenage kids getting killed in the same log cabin & like the start only Derek & Sam survive.
Director Dreesen does alright here, the film looks reasonably good without ever being outstanding. There are obvious references to other (better) horror films including a log cabin straight from The Evil Dead (1982). The Werewolf creature looks OK but the CGI computer transformation scene looks rubbish. Unlike most Werewolf films the Werewolf in Big Bad Wolf can actually talk & is a right Freddy Krueger type as it spouts horribly unfunny one-liners as it kills people, mostly teenagers. This is one aspect of Big Bad Wolf that I really didn't like at all, the Werewolf mask's mouth doesn't move properly either so besides sounding silly it looks it. There are one or two decent gore scenes here, legs are ripped off, there are decapitated head with one shown being twisted off, there are guts, there's blood splatter, the Werewolf claws someone's throat & a scene in which the Werewolf rips a guy's head in half. There is also a short scene which implies the Werewolf has raped a teenage girl.
Technically the film is good enough, it's no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it's reasonably well made considering the budget must have been pretty low. The acting isn't going to win anyone any awards but I have seen worse. David Naughton & Clint Howard make small cameos.
Big Bad Wolf is an OK way to pass 90 odd minutes, I can't say that I overly liked it because of the talking Werewolf & an all to predictable & obvious plot which feels padded. Could have been but it could have been better, worth a watch if your a Werewolf fan but there are much better horror films out there.