Review: Wolf Manor

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Wolf Manor (aka Scream of the Wolf)
Directed by Dominic Brunt
The Club of Wyrdd Tales; Mitchell Brunt Films; Wild Edric Media;
Francis-Castle Pictures; Lightbulb Screen Distribution; Strike Media
85 minutes, 2021 / 2022
www.Strike-Media.com
@wolfmanorfilm #WolfManor Film

Whether it is zombies, vampires or especially slashers, there are a lot of films about low-budget filmmaking under duress. It’s a meta look at how films are made, and how someone in the cast, crew, or at the location, is out to getcha. For this release, if you have not figured it out from the title, deals with a film crew is being jeopardized by a werewolf.

Who can complain about a good lycanthropic film, eh wot? There have been a number of noteworthy ones in the past few years, and happily this one joins the canon. There is something about the transformation of a man (or woman) to a monster that can be like, say The Thing (1982), where a person can look normal, but inside lay a deadly secret. For this British opus, filmed in Leeds, mostly, the monster is declared at the beginning as it starts in the night of the full moon.

At the titular Wolf Manor, the now-abandoned home of a magician, The Great Mascalini, in the countryside of small-town UK, the film crew, led by director Derek (Rupert Proctor), is making a low-budget vampire film starring washed up once-star, Shakespeare-spouting Oliver (James Fleet). He is just part of the whole uninspired crew near the end of a long shoot, who just seem weary of dealing with him and the whole production in general.

There is a very dry comedic tone to this, such as two reporters from a Fangoria type magazine who are on their way to interview Oliver, but first heading to the local pub for directions, The Blue Moon, and commenting that it should be called “The Slaughtered Lamb,” before mentioning to the owner that perhaps they should “stay off the moors.”  I am assuming I do not have to mention the reference. Another is people assuming a severed arm is a prop; the prop master, Owen (Martin Portlock) steals the scenes he is in regarding this.

We do not see the beastie (Morgan Rees-Davies) in all its glory for a while, but we visit his actions pretty early on, and they are nicely blood-soaked albeit a bit visually dark as it is the night (full moon be damned). When we see the creature’s point of view shots, it is in black and white, and through a handheld camera (a bit cliché, but it still works).

When we finally do get to see the werewolf, the make-up is really good, and I was impressed with the way it both walked upright, and ran kind of wolf like on all fours (front being claws rather than paws).

Obviously, the cast and crew are fodder, and luckily there is enough to make a decent body count, with some really glorious gore effects, without being too “technical” in its look. The detached heads, hands, intestines and other body parts have a realistic look that made me smile, rather than cringe in details.

One has to wonder if and who each of the characters are based upon. That is the thing with meta making-of films, the writer is bound to add characteristics of people he/she/they know. Most of them are not people you would necessarily want to meet, but the two most solid characters are just about the only females in the film: the boom mic operator who they just call Boom, Ellie (Sade Malone), and especially Fiona (Taila Zucchi), who seems to be the only one with brains in the entire cast, and for that is one of the central figures in the story, and the most sympathetic to the audience.

The kills are nicely spread throughout the story, rather than just being a bloodbath in Act 3, which makes this more enjoyable with less slow points in-between. Also, there are a number of jump scares, and some of them are effective, as the kills come out of nowhere most of the time. What drives the monster is an overwhelming need to kill, as well as hunger; if a werewolf eats a human, is it cannibalism?

The entire film takes place in one night, the time of the full moon, obviously, though this is the UK, and the overcast weather makes this very dark (lighting), both indoors and out. Oddly, we never actually see any scenes of the film-within-the-film being shot and instead the story is totally behind-the-scenes, so no bright lights for the cameras, inside being as murky and full of shadows as the outside. You may have to squint at certain points to see clearly.

For an indie, lower budget film, the acting is quite good with just a few moments of scenery chewing by the lead, Fleet, which is quite purposefully added to indicate he is a big ham.

The ending was partially what I expected, but then again it also had some surprises mixed in with it. This was an enjoyable watch, with just the right amount of both gore and humor. And speaking of the finale, be sure to see the origin story after the credits.

IMDB listing HERE