Cry Wolf (2005 film)

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Cry Wolf
File:Cry Wolf film.jpg
Directed by	Jeff Wadlow
Written by	Jeff Wadlow, Beau Bauman
Produced by	Beau Bauman
Starring	Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jon Bon Jovi, Kristy Wu
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	16 September 2005
Running time	90 min
Language	English
Budget	~ US$1,000,000

Cry_Wolf is a 2005 film directed by Jeff Wadlow.

Taglines:

Nobody believes a liar...even when he's telling the truth.

Avoid Suspicion, manipulate your friends, eliminate your enemies.

beLIEve

You Lie. You Die.

Main cast

• Julian Morris – Owen Matthews
• Lindy Booth – Dodger Allen
• Jared Padalecki – Tom
• Kristy Wu – Regina
• Jon Bon Jovi – Rich Walker
• Sandra McCoy – Mercedes
• Paul James – Lewis
• Jesse Janzen – Randall
• Ethan Cohn – Graham

Plot

The movie follows a group of students at a private high school who, after a young female "townie", named Becky (who did not attend the private school) is found murdered in the woods, decide to take a game of trust and mistrust one step further by creating a killer. They send a hoax email, forwarding it to the entire school, to "warn" them that the killer, known as "The Wolf," will strike again. Soon, however, it appears that the killer is real and has begun to stalk and kill the group of friends. Akwardly enough, the students are dying the way they had explained earlier, meeting their own, original, grisly fate. Is the killer real? Or is everything part of an even bigger prank?

Template:Spoiler In the end, the original killer's "victim", who is Becky was in fact killed by Dodger, the first friend Owen meets at the school. Dodger had been having relations with one of her teachers, so she killed Becky in order for her to be the only one that he cared about. The Wolf was part of a large prank that all of the group of friends were in on, except Owen. But actually, none of them knew about it until the very end. Near the end of the movie, believing him to be The Wolf, Owen kills Dodger's professor - a killing Dodger had planned from the beginning. Owen then realizes that Dodger was the killer all along at the very end, when everything gets pieced together.

Characters

Dodger

Probably the most complicated and developed character in the movie, Dodger is a highly involved female at the wealthy prep-school who is attending on a fully paid scholoarship. She is manipulative from the beginning, but the degree is not revealed until the end. She had an affair with the journalism teacher, who said she was too mature for males her own age. After her lover (the teacher) slept with another student and then planned to flee the prep-school with said student, Dodger sought revenge, murdering the girl. In order to cover up the murder, Dodger planted the idea of creating a "scenario" in the minds of her friends and the idea of the "wolf" takes flight. In the end, Dodger manages to walk away free of blame with only Owen aware of her crime.

Dodger views people as either "sheep" or "wolves." She proves to be exceptionally talented in predicting people and reading them. Manipulative, intelligent, and skilled at reading people, she appears to be psychopathic, and is revealed at the end of the movie to have planned the killings all along.

Owen

The protagonist, Owen seems to be British. He is intelligent but caught up in a poor relationship with his wealthy and well-connected father. Much of Owen's actions are guided by his fascination with Dodger or his need to belong, which is played off as a result of his parental situation. Dodger informs him early in the movie that his weakness is being a good person. Indeed, this is in many ways true. He is, however, the only character to discover Dodger's true intent and action, but does so only after murdering (in self-defense) the journalism teacher and so losing all credibility.

Tom

Tom does not play a major role in the movie, but is somewhat important to the plotline. He loves everything and anything involving Texas and mutters profanities often. Tom is carefree most of the time and enjoys his friends company. When Owen gets an instant message, Tom is there to reply, and then lead Owen to the pool. The only explosive moment of Tom in the film, is when his room gets trashed and he thinks Owen did it. That leads him to chase Owen in the Wolf suit countless times. Although Tom is a bit self-centered and unjust, he is still a character worth describing. (brockwee17@yahoo.com)

Public reception

Cry_Wolf, although grossing only $13 million, has a following among some teenagers and young adults.

Due to the commercials and other advertisements for the movie, many viewers expected it to be a slasher movie, or even supernatural. In reality, the show was more of a mystery with plot twists and surprises. It has been criticized for not being violent or scary enough. Cry_Wolf relies on more of a psychological effect to scare its viewers. People also claimed that there were too many plot twists, which made it hard to follow. Fans disagree with this analysis of the movie, saying that it was more of a murder mystery.

External links

• Cry_Wolf at IMDb

       Brock Perles