by Vicky Lawrence
Warning: this review contains spoilers.
The Curse of Wolf Mountain initially draws us in as a supernatural/creature feature-type horror, when in reality, it’s actually a slasher through and through and is oversaturated with typical slasher tropes. It boasts having a great cast, including Tobin Bell (Saw), Danny Trejo (From Dusk till Dawn) and even TikTok comedian Matt Rife (briefly featured in Brooklyn Nine Nine). However, regardless of having these big names throughout the film, it doesn’t really save how dull most of the film is with an unoriginal plot.
We meet AJ (Keli Price), who is trying to deal with the traumatic deaths of his parent with his psychiatrist Dr Avery (Bell). He can’t seem to remember whether it was a creature or a person that was the cause of their demise. To try and process his loss, Dr Avery suggests exposure therapy of returning to Wolf Mountain to try and jog AJ’s memory, for him to move on and process this grief. AJ, in turn, plans this trip with his brother Max, bringing along his own wife and Max’s family, to hike up and camp at Wolf Mountain to find the answers of his parents’ death. We learn about the curse and legends of the area and how there is a history of deaths linked to a mad creature living in Wolf Mountain. This makes us question whether the creature in question is, in fact, a werewolf. A ranger gives the group a set of rules for the duration of their stay on the mountain that aligns with the typical slasher rules that we have seen in the likes of Scream, such as ‘don’t have sex’ and ‘don’t drink or do drugs’. Before we see them set up camp on the mountain, we’re introduced to Danny Trejo’s character, a gangster type who has broken into the grounds and is trying to hide some illegally obtained money with his partner. It’s a role that appears typecasting for Trejo, far too unoriginal for Trejo’s range.
Rules start to be broken during their stay; people in their group have sex, drink, and end up disappearing, causing AJ and his wife to be panicked about their whereabouts. Regardless, AJ and his wife make the trip to the top of the mountain, the site of his parent’s death, to hopefully find the answers he needs. To his dismay, he remembers nothing and goes back to try and find the rest of his family. Darkness starts to set in, and we are introduced to the monster of the film with his first kill, a man with a wolf mask, so any hope for a werewolf film has been nixed here. We go through the majority of the film, seeing some mediocre kills that are just a bit lack-lustre and seeing AJ, his wife and Danny Trejo’s partner running around and trying to hide. Due to the lack of phone connection on the mountain, AJ tries to find a spot to call his cousin (who lives nearby) to try and save them or call the rangers. This entire section of the film tries to cause suspense and tries to make you feel the panic the characters are feeling, but it just seems drawn out and boring. With more mediocre kills, as the rangers come to investigate the situation and AJ tries to protect his wife, the film just feels a bit of a mess and is incredibly confusing. Fast forward to AJ being confronted by the killer; it’s here he gets all of his answers to his parent’s death and how this legend of the wolf-man killer was simply used as a cover for the real reason (which is the only actually good twist in the entire film). In this sequence, the killer is defeated, questions are answered, and AJ, his wife, and cousin survive the ordeal.
The film cuts to a year later, where we see AJ’s family, a new baby girl, he is no longer having nightmares, and everyone’s lives seem to be okay. Dr Avery believes that AJ’s trauma is over and that his services are no longer required, to which he agrees, and he carries on with his life and job. However, we have one more twist that we feel everyone could see coming, where the killer isn’t defeated and breaks into AJ’s home to try and kill his wife and new daughter. AJ gets wise and realises that this isn’t over and finally rushes back to the house to kill the villain, and with that, the film ends.
We had high hopes for this film after reading the synopsis and looking at the cast they had onboard for it, but we can honestly say we were incredibly bored for the majority of the time. We thought this was going to be a supernatural-esque film with a creature, but it was just an overly typical slasher that played around with all of the tropes. It didn’t really have anything original to give to us, which could have been done – it could have played on that werewolf idea instead of just a jilted man with a vendetta on his hands, which has been done to death. There was a lot of filler with drone footage of the terrain; we feel that this was to give us an insight of the actual grounds of the mountain and maybe push this idea of a potential creature, but in reality, it gave us the feeling that they did not have enough story to make the film long enough – it was just a bit weak.
All in all, The Curse of Wolf Mountain felt like an oversaturated slasher, which wanted to throw in all of the tropes instead of picking and choosing specific aspects and moulding them into this film. The story seemed quite weak but did deal with important feelings surrounding familial trauma of this aspect of being born over being adopted and whether blood is actually thicker than water. Sadly though, this sole factor couldn’t save this film in my opinion. I’d always say give any film a watch and form your own opinion on it, but if you miss this film, you will only really be missing out on seeing Tobin Bell and Danny Trejo in small roles.
The Curse of Wolf Mountain is available on digital in the US.
