It has certainly been interesting to watch the career of Dominic Brunt, an affable man and a very likeable presence onscreen (arguably STILL most famous for his ongoing role in Emmerdale). He made his love for horror clear quite some time ago, and has since been working hard to deliver the kind of films that I assume he enjoys watching. Sadly, I have yet to see any of his other directorial features. Wolf Manor, while not awful, doesn’t make me want to rush through the rest of his filmography. Now known in most places as Scream Of The Wolf, I will refer to it all through this review as Wolf Manor as that is the much better title for it.
There’s a low-budget British horror movie being made, with the cast and crew trying their best to get all of the footage they need while on location. That location is a house in the middle of nowhere, the kind of place where locals in the nearest pub will warn you not to go out too late at night, and certainly not to stray from the main paths. The reason for their wariness is obvious, and it isn’t long until we start seeing a werewolf on the prowl.
Brunt isn’t too bad behind the camera, despite his relatively limited resources and some lighting levels that are too low, either to hide some of the effects or simply because they thought it would be more intriguing and atmospheric, but he’s hampered by the script. Writers Joel Ferrari and Pete Wild manage to make one character stand out, but spend the rest of their time shoehorning in references and gags for fans of lycanthropic movies, and those who know the pitfalls of low-budget movie-making, to enjoy. That’s all well and good, but it’s no substitute for proper dialogue and plot development. The best thing the film does, arguably, is a post-credit sequence that serves up a homage to the classic werewolf movies better than anything that preceded it.
The cast are all fine, but few people get to make much of an impression. The notable exception is James Fleet, the star of the film, and the star of the film-within-the-film. Fleet plays an actor who knows that he’s not working with the best material, but still approaches it with what he deems the proper and professional approach. He occasionally needs more time and space than everyone else, but he’s not working on a movie production that can allow him that freedom. Everyone around him just wants him to put his fake vampire fangs in and get the shots in the can. While everyone else does perfectly well in their roles, they all feel like they are there to take their time being terrorised by the werewolf. Which wouldn’t be so bad if there were more memorable moments of werewolf carnage, but many moments are undermined by either the lighting or editing, unfortunately.
Many people will watch this and feel I have been a bit harsh. It’s certainly a film aiming to be FUN, first and foremost, and I applaud that. The relatively short runtime helps. I think it just gets to about 70 minutes before those credits run, and then you have that post-credit sequence to enjoy. There are also a couple of fun kills, and a decent final scene. It’s just a shame that the script couldn’t have been handed to someone else for a bit of an overhaul, with a focus on fleshing out the main characters and making the references less obvious and clunky.
4/10
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