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Owen (Julian Morris), a new student at Westlake Preparatory Academy meets Reg (Lindy Booth) who
introduces him to her buddies, welcoming him into their clique. At one late night out, the schoolmates agree to play a game "inspired" by a recent macabre off-campus killing
of a young woman.
Verbally and through the school intranet, word goes around that – instead of an uncaught murderer – a serial killer is on the loose, and the next victim would be a student. Mr. Walker (Jon Bon Jovi), their teacher in journalism class, declares that the information being spread is not true. Then, out of the blue, a real stalker/killer who is not part of the game-playing group starts scaring the students, but no one wants to believe what now is the truth.
It is a suspense horror/thriller that manages to offer sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat
entertainment.
The young cast made efforts to sustain the necessary tension in the connecting sequences by their expressions and body language. Some significant lengths are dialogue-driven, however, and these portions are not easy to follow as the movie seems to make itself deliberately vague. Mr. Walker (Jon Bon Jovi) could have been a more dynamic and convincing teacher and person. The movie's title,
Cry Wolf, is reminiscent of the story of "the boy who cried wolf, when there was none.
That story shows what happened when that boy was finally telling the truth about the wolf: nobody believed him. Cry Wolf
uses the same situation to keep the audience guessing.
The lesson that Cry Wolf
seems to be telling here is that there is nothing really that good that can come from making a joke out of a serious situation. Murder is a serious crime; taking a human being's life is no matter for nonsensical games. Instead of becoming vigilant because of that crime, the group of teenagers choose to play a game of "Cry wolf". What kind of minds would make a simple game out of the brutal murder of the young woman? In addition to this alarming element in the movie, there are three killings, a show of violence and bloody visuals, some sexual humor situations, plus some objectionable language.
(Date Reviewed: 11 November 2005)
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