Wonderful character development!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

"Scream of the Wolf" is one of the more fascinating stories from the 70s.**SPOILERS**Driving along a lonely road, a man is attacked by a strange creature. Sheriff Vernon Bell, (Phillip Crane) is sent out to investigate the incident, and finds strange tracks in the woods. He goes to old friend John Wetherby, (Peter Graves) an expert tracker who just entered retirement, to get some help on the case. John agrees, and he begins to search around the area of the attack. He runs into Byron Douglas, (Clint Walker) another local animal tracker. Douglas doesn't provide any support for John, and he decides to finish investigating. Another attack brings a news report on the attacks, which brings the attention to Sandy Miller, (Jo Ann Pflug) an old friend of John's. After the creature is found to be a werewolf, it attacks Sandy in her home, forcing John to finally track down the werewolf and kill it.The Good News: I know it doesn't seem like that long of a film, but this is far more entertaining than it should be. I don't know if it's the 70's tone that it has, or if it manages to actually be that entertaining, I haven't found out yet. This is a film that I can repeatedly by on and enjoy it all the way through. Few movies can actually do that continuously, as you become more and more accustomed to them. I have even grown too actually like the design of the werewolf in here after initially hating it. The werewolf is only seen in a few quick shots, but that was enough to know that it is a pretty frightening creature. It does feature a very wolf-ish look. It also looks like a cross between the two previous werewolf classics, "The Wolf Man," and "Curse of the Werewolf," with that of a more traditional-looking wolf. There is also a lot more suspense than you would expect in the film. The best part has to be the raid the wolf has on Sandy's cabin. That is a spoiler moment, so I can't reveal too much, but it does provide a very original jump that has since been copied in just about every other werewolf film since. It may not affect too many because you have seen it many times before, but this is the oldest film I have seen with that particular jump. It is also good to see genre veteran Peter Graves in here, as he hams it up like he does in so many of his films. He plays a regular role for him, and he plays it like he normally does in lots of movies. It was a nice surprise to see him in here.The Bad News: As usual, we hardly get to see the werewolf, which I don't know why as it is a very good design for a werewolf, but they kept it limited to a few scenes at the end. Another thing that annoyed me with the film is that it is pretty short. Even for a TV movie, this is still a lot shorter than it could've been. The plot does allow for some more time to chase after the wolf.The Final Verdict: If you can ignore the fact that they have a cool wolf that is hardly used, this is another entry in that "Give-it-a-chance" category. I don't know why more people don't about this film, as it does provide some action-packed scenes and a very creepy lead wolf.Today's Rating; PG-13: Vicious Werewolf attacks, very minor gore, and a brief view of a mangled corpse

Distributor: DollarDVD Plot: Adventure writer is called in to investigate a series of brutal murders that has investigators confused. The clues are not clear and leave no clear trail. The tracks left at the murder site appear to be of a wolf. The suspense and terror builds as danger lurks in the shadows of the night.Audio/Video: The quality of the DVD was actually better then I thought it would be considering the distributors are called Dollar DVD and the damn thing only cost a buck.Extras: Movie trivia, the only weird thing is that it is trivia from other movies.Final thoughts: ABC movies of the week were all pretty good, some were better then others. This one was an average made for TV movie. If you see it then get it. It is pretty good.

This is an exceptionally well made for TV movie that has your standard werewolf movie stuff,but yet its a strange kind of duck,with a surprise twist.The acting is done extremely well,especially by Graves and Walker,who absolutely steals the show as a big game hunter with a rather interesting philosophical point of view about life and a grim,yet at the same time, happy go lucky kind of personality.Some of his lines are quite memorable{"Look at the terrified faces of these people.They feel alive in the face of danger".].The film has convincing moments of tension and the story moves along at a steady pace with a convincing feeling of mystery.Peter Graves is brilliant,too, as the retired hunter coming out of retirement to track down an apparent werewolf on the loose.All in all,this film is done with a certain amount of style and flair rarely seen in made for TV movies these days.This is a great one to watch late at night.If you like horror/mystery types of movies,I highly recommend this.Its worth seeing just for Clint Walker"s character and the great job he does portraying him!

Only the most die hard werewolf movie fans (or bottom feeders who like to see bad films as a sort of self-inflicted pleasure-pain) will want to endure this. Even they may be disappointed. Silver fox Graves (who drives a hip car and has a hip house while hip music blares) stars as a former hunter turned writer who, after a series of grisly attacks on local residents, decides to hunt down the predator personally. The killings are the standard "hapless victim looks into camera and screams while growls are heard then blackout". This gets tiresome very quickly. One extended attack on Grave's ladyfriend Pflug (in a pedestrian performance) has a certain amount of edge to it. (Hilariously, though, this single woman lives in a house that appears to have more rooms than Monticello!) Pflug suspects Walker, an old buddy of Graves who lives in a mansion up in the woods and does a lot of odd philosophizing about human nature. Walker, still attractive and virile, gives an unusual performance full of dopey expressions and strange vocal inflections. His relationship with Graves has a homoerotic twinge, not unlike the Stephen Boyd/Charlton Heston dynamic in "Ben-Hur". Sheriff Carey rounds out the male trio of tall actors. The film aspires to a level of intellect that it's budget cheapens more than a little. Still, it's not the worst TV horror movie ever made. At least someone tried to write something with a little irony and mystery to it. One scene between Graves, Pflug and Walker takes place in a restaurant that must have a sign on the door, "No one attractive allowed!" Soap opera veteran Storm appears briefly as a victim.