Big Bad Wolf (2006)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Perfectly adorable

Beautiful, moving film.

An Exercise In Nonsense

Scott, Mitch, Charlie and another man are on a hunting trip. Mitch and Charlie get separated from the others. Something grabs one of the men and he is not seen again. Then Scott is grabbed and we see this terrible creature who doesn't quite look like a wolf, or anything else that exists in nature. Charlie arrives but can't save his friend.Seven years later Mitch is married to Scott's widow Gwen. he is not nice, but doesn't quite qualify as abusive. Gwen's son Derek doesn't accept him as his father. Derek is pledging a college fraternity, and to impress two of the members, he steals the keys to Mitch's cabin in the woods. The other two guys have brought girls, and Derek likes Sam, a biker chick who works in a garage. Sam has an attitude and doesn't take pleasure in spending time with Muffy, Brittany, Biff and Chad (their names are actually Cassie, Melissa, Alex and Jason). It's hard to believe a nice guy Like Derek would like her. Actually, Sam is quite likeable even if she has an edge.The group get lost and asks a man whose truck broke down for help. The guys are eager to help fix the truck but only Sam can actually get it done. But the man refuses at first to give the kids any advice other than turn around and go back. He finally gives in, and the kids arrive at the cabin and have a great time. Cassie has nasty things to say about Alex and they get the bedroom, apparently so they can do what she was talking about. We do get to see her in her underwear before ... you know what will happen. Just not when or how many. And the monster says things like, "Little pig, little pig, let me in!"Derek and Sam are on the news and are being hounded by journalists. The funniest group of reporters are the ones from the university, who want to make a tribute to the deceased, and they harass the kids several times before becoming more important to the plot.Charlie has avoided the family since the earlier incident, but he has a theory. So do Derek and Sam. Charlie secretly meets with the kids and they all investigate the theory, hoping to stop the monster.We do get to meet the monster when he is human. We see signs he is not who we think he is, and ... let me put it this way. You wouldn't like him when he's angry. But he can normally control himself except during a full moon, which there was when the men were hunting, and when the kids were at the cabin. The ending is quite exciting. And ridiculous. Count Basie would be proud. If you are looking for a good horror movie, this might not be it. This might be one of those movies that is so bad it's good. But maybe not, since some of the acting is quite good. I found the mystery interesting and many of the characters and situations entertaining.If anyone can be called a good actor in this film, it is Kimberly J. Brown as Sam. Despite her attitude, she's quite easy to like most of the time, and when she has to in order to get information, she can be quite charming.Another good actor is the one who plays the monster, even when he is human. As the monster, he is actually funny, if you like a sick sense of humor. I don't. I think the credits give away who the actor is, but keep in mind sometimes actors play more than one part. Perhaps Mitch has a twin brother or something. A lot of people are shown in the credits as being responsible for the great job of making Richard Tyson look so good. This movie was cleaned up for TV when I saw it. There seemed to be a lot of bad language, and there were several scenes where something was blurry and red. The violence here is often implied but not for the squeamish. And lots of innocent people don't make it, though if you don't like them, that might not be so bad.I'm not a horror movie fan, but there was a lot for me to like here.

"Big Bad Wolf" (2006) indeed ranks with the best werewolf flicks. I wasn't so sure during the first half hour, which involves a group of college teens going out to a desolate cabin to party. The bulk of the group are unlikable frat trash and the film goes over-the-top with the gore, nudity and naughtiness as a werewolf attacks. There's also a semi-campy vibe that prevents the viewer from taking the material seriously; as such, it's thrilling, but not really scary.Like other viewers, I was surprised to see the cabin angle of the story end by the close of the first act. The typical horror flick would use this for the entire plot. I was like, "Where are they going to go from here?" Well, the two survivors start to suspect who the werewolf may be and join-up with someone else to end the werewolf's reign of terror.Despite the above negatives, everything comes together for an excellent werewolf flick. It all makes sense if you stick with it. For instance, why are Derek, the nerd, and Sam, the mechanic biyatch, the only two survivors of the original group? Sam comes off too-gruff at first, and it's a turn-off, but then it becomes clear that she was just able to see through the fakeness and superficiality of the frat trash and refused to take their sheet. Derek's the likable protagonist who's uncertain, but rises to the challenge when necessary. I found myself caring about these two and their potential relationship as the story progressed.After the first act, the movie becomes reminiscent of "Fright Night" in that it involves two teens -- a male and a female -- who suspect someone in the neighborhood of being a monster and hooking up with an older individual to take down the creature. Whereas "Big Bad Wolf" shares similarities to "Fright Night", 2008's "Never Cry Werewolf" wholesalely rips it off, just substituting a werewolf for a vampire (still, it's a really good werewolf flick).What impressed me with "Fright Night" was the hideousness and wickedness of the vampire; "Big Bad Wolf" does the same thing with the werewolf, but ups the ante. More than that, the werewolf retains the intelligence of the man to a large degree and can talk, which is an interesting addition to werewolf lore. It also makes the creature more interesting. Even more, they give dimension to the man who's infected by the werewolf curse. Later in the story it becomes clear that he WAS trying to keep himself from harming people when the full moon came. Yet this is contrasted by his basking in the curse whenever he becomes the werewolf. Good writing and attention to detail like this propels "Big Bad Wolf" to the head of the pack.There's a rockin' soundtrack and an an excellent number that plays during the end credits, "Shelter" by Green Vinyl Dream.I should stress that this is a hard R-rated film with some very crude moments, mainly because the werewolf is thoroughly evil and some of the youths are frat trash, but if you can look beneath its gruff exterior it's got a good heart and is a worthwhile experience.The film was shot in Semi Valley and Los Angeles, California, and runs 95 minutes.GRADE: A

Having agreed to allow his fraternity brothers to spend the weekend partying with their girlfriends at his stepfather's cabin, lanky pledge Derek (Trevor Duke) convinces his platonic girlfriend, spunky female mechanic Sam (Kimberly J. Brown), to tag along and keep him company.The fun soon comes to an end, however, when a werewolf crashes the party and proceeds to tear the frat guys and girls into ribbons. Derek and Sam narrowly escape with their lives, but the danger proves to be far from over when they correctly suspect that the werewolf's true identity is none other than Mitchell Toblat (Richard Tyson), Derek's overbearing stepfather.Big Bad Wolf features one of the most miserable CGI transformation scenes I've ever seen (not quite as abysmal as the one from Darkwolf, but pretty close) and the resultant creature isn't exactly the greatest cinematic lycanthrope to ever lope through the woods on a moonlit night, looking like an angry, ugly Wookie having a bad hair day, and with a face as expressionless as Nicole Kidman after a top-up at the botox clinic.Don't let the monster's manky appearance put you off checking this film out, though, because what he lacks in the looks department, he sure makes up for in attitude: this beast is one seriously sadistic sonovabitch, taunting his prey as he stalks them (yes, that's right, he can talk!), giving the hottest girls some serious wolf lovin' before ripping them apart, and generally taking great pleasure in reducing his victims to a ragged, bloody mess.Whilst this is certainly bad news for anyone who should accidentally cross his path, it's great news for horror fans who love their films done in the worst possible taste: legs are pulled off, heads ripped apart, throats slashed, genitals torn away, and guts pulled out, but only after any hot babes have been defrocked and rogered by the randy beast. And while we're talking about bad taste, let's not forget about the incredibly trashy moment when Sam sneaks into Mitchell's bedroom to find strands of his hair for DNA testing, but ends up with a DNA sample of a different kind when she is cornered by Mr. Toblat and pressured into giving him head (hey, I did say she was a spunky gal!).I give Big Bad Wolf a rating of 7.5 out of 10, happily rounded up to 8 because the DVD only cost me a quid from Poundland!

This was a fun horror film. It didn't try to be more than it was supposed to be, but did enjoy itself being all it could be.The werewolf could have done with looking a little more wolf-like in both it's costume and it's mannerisms, and it reminded me of the old wolfman style pre-howling/AWIL.The werewolf had some good lines and worked well with it's attitude overall.The main characters were well acted I thought, and the plot was a nice horror plot that flowed well.Gore, nudity, and naughtiness was all in good supply and didn't feel forced into the story.Don't expect a scary film, or a psychological horror. It is what it is, a fun entertaining film with a few nice ideas and scenes that you don't normally see in films these days.Good potential for a series of films, as the villain and content of the films could work well as such, as long as the production values are maintained.