Acting: mostly OK (Graves and Pflug are decent)
Camera-work: Pedestrian - passable for TV
Plot: Predictable but interestingly carried out
Directing and editing: Mediocre at best.
Peter Graves makes an unconvincing action star in this horror film which seems to be mostly lacking in horror. He is ably supported by Jo Ann Pflug and somewhat over-supported by Clint Walker. Apparently the southern USA was the setting of a slew of wolf, wolfman, werewolf and lycanthrope flicks in the 1970s (somehow I missed all of them until recently), mostly starring out-of-work TV actors. Among these, Scream of the Wolf is unique for a couple of reasons:
First, its unusual title.
Second, it's somewhat unique (and interesting) plot.
Graves is an older local dude (it's never really clear what he does or did), Pflug is his love interest, and Walker is a hunting buddy with somewhat extreme Hemingwayian view of life and society. People start dying, and a wolf - or something like a wolf, appears to be the culprit. Soon, it becomes apparent that there is a pattern to killings, and it increasingly centers on Graves.
This is a low budget, intelligently plotted and scripted film. The death scenes are the usual genre cop-outs: Point of view scenes shot from the perspective of the attacker. With just a little more thoughtful camera-work and editing, it could have been a good film.
Camera-work: Pedestrian - passable for TV
Plot: Predictable but interestingly carried out
Directing and editing: Mediocre at best.
Peter Graves makes an unconvincing action star in this horror film which seems to be mostly lacking in horror. He is ably supported by Jo Ann Pflug and somewhat over-supported by Clint Walker. Apparently the southern USA was the setting of a slew of wolf, wolfman, werewolf and lycanthrope flicks in the 1970s (somehow I missed all of them until recently), mostly starring out-of-work TV actors. Among these, Scream of the Wolf is unique for a couple of reasons:
First, its unusual title.
Second, it's somewhat unique (and interesting) plot.
Graves is an older local dude (it's never really clear what he does or did), Pflug is his love interest, and Walker is a hunting buddy with somewhat extreme Hemingwayian view of life and society. People start dying, and a wolf - or something like a wolf, appears to be the culprit. Soon, it becomes apparent that there is a pattern to killings, and it increasingly centers on Graves.
This is a low budget, intelligently plotted and scripted film. The death scenes are the usual genre cop-outs: Point of view scenes shot from the perspective of the attacker. With just a little more thoughtful camera-work and editing, it could have been a good film.