Movie Review
The Wolf of Snow Hollow
reviewed by John Chandler
No Spoilers
One floundering cop’s quest to stop a lupine-styled killer in a small Utah town forms the dramatic basis of The Wolf Of Snow Hollow, an impressively atmospheric thriller written, directed, and starring Jim Cummings.
Instead of focusing on the tortured soul who becomes a wolf when the moon is full and bright, the camera remains bound to Deputy John Marshall (Cummings), a tightly wound recovering alcoholic with more problems on his hands than Ted Cruz. His father (Robert Forster, in his final screen role) the stubborn town sheriff has a not-so-hidden heart condition that’s slowed him down considerably as retirement looms.
“This is scary. It’s new. I’ve never seen a body like that,” he tells John after a gruesome victim viewing.
On the home front, John’s teenaged daughter Jenna (Chloe East) is a budding gymnast who also likes to park in cars with local boys, a hobby that nearly results in her mutilation. The Snow Hollow police force—except for his sturdy partner Officer Julia Robson (Riki Lindhome)—consists of feckless nitwits. This proves significant because Snow Hollow is under siege from a “wolf man” who’s been brutally dismembering members of the community beneath the light of the full moon.
Deputy John and his department of underachievers have been unable to find the man or animal that is making coleslaw out of the citizenry. They in turn, have no problem reminding the beleaguered boys in blue that they’re a bunch of incompetents.
“Where were you? Where were you?” a bereaved father yells at the frustrated policeman.
John takes this especially hard, often feeling like he’s the only one in town who doesn’t believe the prevailing rumors.
“Let me just make this perfectly clear,” he snarls at his assembled troops. “There is no such thing as werewolves.”
Yet as more evidence of wolfish carnage turns up in bloody piles, John’s anger builds while his grip on reality gets increasingly shaky thanks to a return to old habits and very little sleep. He bottoms out after being discovered by a concerned police matron (Anna Sward) on the floor of the police station, stoned into a stupor, with a vape pen dangling out of his mouth. The frazzled cop’s personal psychodrama is laid out for the whole town to see in The Wolf of Snow Hollow. John’s increasingly erratic and destructive behavior runs parallel to the fear and horror spilling over in the community he’s supposed to protect.
After Jenna makes a narrow escape from the wolf man, John realizes he can’t even protect his own daughter, forcing him to sober up and get serious about his mission to rid the town of a beastly killer. This in turn becomes his means of personal (and professional) salvation.
“You want to be the sheriff? How about we start acting like one?” Officer Robson tells him.
As a filmmaker, Cummings has the visual flair to create chilling tableaux. Scenes of moonlit stalking and slaughter are tightly edited for maximum fright, and we get used to seeing the snow run red. As the leading man, Cummings acquits himself well, deftly handling the gradual disintegration of a determined deputy and dad by forces beyond his control.
“When do I get to be right about something?” John wonders aloud.
It takes about three-quarters of The Wolf of Snow Hollow’s running time to find out.
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