The Wolf of Snow Hollow

The Wolf of Snow Hollow
Official promotional poster
Directed by	Jim Cummings
Written by	Jim Cummings
Produced by	Kathleen Grace Matt Hoklotubbe Michael J. McGarry Natalie Metzger Matt Miller Benjamin Wiessner
Starring	Jim Cummings Riki Lindhome Chloe East Jimmy Tatro Robert Forster
Cinematography	Natalie Kingston
Edited by	Patrick Nelson Barnes R. Brett Thomas
Music by	Ben Lovett
Production companies	Orion Classics New Form Vanishing Angle XYZ Films
Distributed by	United Artists Releasing
Release date	October 9, 2020 (2020-10-09) (United States)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2 million [1]
Box office	$266,963 [2][3]

The Wolf of Snow Hollow is a 2020 American comedy horror film about a small Utah town that is seemingly terrorized by a werewolf. It was written and directed by Jim Cummings who also stars along with Riki Lindhome, Chloe East, Jimmy Tatro, and Robert Forster. The film is dedicated to Forster, as it was the last of his career, completed shortly before his death.^[4]

It was released in limited theaters and on VOD in the United States on October 9, 2020 by United Artists Releasing.^[5]

Plot[]

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (August 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The film opens with PJ Palfrey (Tatro) and his girlfriend Brianne (Annie Hamilton) vacationing in the fictional town of Snow Hollow, Summit County, Utah for 2 days. During a night of drinking, PJ gets into a verbal altercation with two hunters making homophobic slurs. Returning to his lodging, PJ notices that the kitchen knives are missing, while Brianne leaves the house in order to visit Paul Carnury (Will Madden) in an attempt to buy more taxidermy, to no avail. After coming back, they both relax in the hot tub before PJ heads back into the house in order to take a shower. Brianne, while drying off in the cold, hears a growl in the distance before being killed by an unseen figure. PJ discovers her body near the garage, with a bloody paw print clearly visible in the snow.

The next day, John Marshall (Cummings), an alcoholic police officer with anger management issues, is attending a sobriety program in which he has been participating for 6 years. His ex-wife Brittany (Rachel Jane Day) is attempting to remove him from custody of their daughter Jenna (East). John is called from his meeting to the scene of the murder. His father, Sheriff Hadley (Forster), and fellow officer Julia (Lindhome) are already at the scene and have discovered that some of Brianne's body parts are missing. They decide to withhold details about the carnage from the public. Sheriff Hadley worries about having another heart attack after already suffering one recently. John attempts to reassure Hadley that it's a murder just like any other murder they've had to investigate. Julia questions the locals on the events leading to the murder and finds the two hunters, who describe PJ as very rude and confrontational. News begins to circulate around the town about a possible "wolfman" among them, and paranoia begins to spread amongst the townsfolk and cops alike. John is skeptical and is adamant that the killing was done by a man, and not a wolf.

Soon after, a ski instructor named Hannah Martin (Hannah Elder) is killed and rumors about a killer werewolf spread, much to John's annoyance. He gets into a physical altercation with a fellow officer named Bo (Kevin Changaris) after the latter lets slip to the local press that the killer could be a wolf. Under stress, John begins drinking again. After accepting Bo's apology, John fires him all the same, much to the dismay of his fellow officers. John becomes increasingly agitated by the rumors of the killer being a werewolf, at one point nearly getting into a fight with an officer named Chavez (Demetrius Daniels) for suggesting it.

While John and Julia drive to work the next morning, someone throws a beer bottle at Julia's car. Meanwhile, an unknown individual living alone in his RV is using heroin. John and Julia then question PJ, who has moved back home with his mother, about the events of the night that lead to the murder of his girlfriend. PJ tells them that he didn't see any sign of a werewolf, before telling John to "shoot the killer till you can see the ground through his face."

A new mother named Liz Fairchild (Kelsey Edwards) is brought in for questioning after a strange confrontation with a man at a restaurant, which leads to a string of interrogations of other townsfolk, and calls to the police from others claiming to know the identity of the wolfman. John discovers that Hadley has suffered from another heart murmur, and urges him to seek medical treatment. They argue, with John declaring that Hadley should work from home, which Hadley dismisses as "ageism". Hadley refuses to go for treatment. Later that night, on the drive home from the questioning, Liz and her baby are killed by the wolfman.

John begins to get increasingly agitated and angry, at one point getting into another fight with the coroner after the latter declares that he's doing a bad job in finding suspects. He drinks even more. Later that night, he tries to kill himself by drinking a full bottle of mouthwash, but fails. The film then cuts to the homeless man from earlier burning a wood pile with a dead body inside of it. The man has a wolf tattoo on his arm.

John combs through the town's records in order to determine whether or not the killer has had any personal relationships with the victims, and looks up some werewolf history and lore. After investigating Liz's workplace, they discover that the man Liz had previously encountered at the restaurant called her workplace asking for her. Suspecting that they may have found the killer, the police force heads over to the location to where the call was placed, finding it on a local road and wiped clean. A curfew is imposed and an active watch for the creature is begun. After suffering another heart murmur, Hadley agrees to retire and seek treatment at John's urging.

Jenna sneaks away in the middle of the night to see her boyfriend. They are attacked by the werewolf. John and the others are called over and attempt to stop the creature but it escapes, killing an officer named Ray offscreen, while Jenna suffers a minor head wound after she is abandoned by her boyfriend to fend for herself. When John yells at Jenna for breaking curfew, and asking how much her mother will yell at him for it, Jenna declares that his lack of care is the reason why she is going away for college, and wishes to spend as much time away from him as possible. After visiting both Jenna and Hadley in the hospital, John breaks into Jenna's boyfriend's house and attacks him for leaving her to die, but the boy's mother chases him away with pepper spray. Meanwhile, Hadley passes away from heart complications at the hospital.

John is banned from his program meetings due to his angry outbursts and drinking. Grieving for his father, he sleeps in his office, parks his car in the middle of the road, and punches himself until his teeth begin to fall out. Driving home drunk, he crashes his car into a column. The film then cuts to the homeless man seemingly dying from an overdose of heroin.

They find the man's body the next morning, and the police automatically assume he is the killer due to his tattoo, his odd knife collection, his location from the original crime scene, his height, and the discovery of the dead body from the woodpile buried in his backyard, which turns out to be that of a missing woman. When the coroner insults John's intelligence and threatens to tell the press about his difficulties in finding the murderer, John deduces that the coroner was responsible for the vandalization of Julia's car, and fires him. On the way to redistribute the evidence, Julia criticizes John for the lack of care for his own life as well as his anger issues. She warns John that if he doesn't focus on the important stuff, then he will lose so much more than what he's already lost.

Julia gets a call from PJ about a sewing needle that they had supposedly left at their house. Realizing that the needle in question is used for taxidermy, Julia surmises that the only taxidermist in the town is Paul Carnury, hence him being the killer. While distributing evidence back to their original owners, John stops by Paul's house and they begin to have a chat. While having a conversation about the case, Paul declares that he doesn't have a wife after John asks him if she was away for the weekend, contrary to his previous claims in the film. He then asks John about his daughter, something he couldn't have known unless he was present at the night of Jenna's attack. Deducing this as he walks out the door, John returns and asks Paul to stand up to his actual height.

Thinking he's joking at first, Paul then stands, revealing himself to be over 6 feet tall. He then attempts to run by locking the door on him. John breaks into Paul's house, discovering his workstation and Hannah's head on top of it. Freaking out, John turns around and is stabbed in the stomach by Paul, who growls as he lifts John up in the air. Hearing sirens outside, Paul lets go of John and runs. Crawling for his gun and searching the house, John is kicked in the face by Paul, who is now revealed to be wearing a werewolf costume. He unleashes an animalistic growl and disappears into the woods, with John following after. Following Paul into the woods, John is ambushed and beaten by Paul, only for the latter to be distracted by fireworks in the sky. Julia arrives and shoots Paul in the back. John struggles to stand up and using his gun, shoots Paul 5 times in the face with it, killing him.

After having one final flashback of his father, John collapses onto the snow as Julia rushes over to check up on him. The film cuts to a couple months into the future, with John fully recovered and Julia appointed as the new sheriff of Snow Hollow. While packing for college, Jenna is visited by John and is given condoms and a gun for protection. As he walks out of the dorm room with Julia, John walks past two men sexualizing the women in the dorm rooms. John stops for a moment, before walking away.

Cast[]

• Jim Cummings as Officer John Marshall^[6]
• Riki Lindhome^[7] as Officer Julia Robson^[8]
• Chloe East^[9] as Jenna Marshall^[8]
• Jimmy Tatro^[10] as PJ Palfrey^[8]
• Robert Forster^[9] as Sheriff Hadley^[8]
• Marshall Allman as Jeremy^[8]
• Neville Archambault as Gerry^[8]
• Annie Hamilton as Brianne^[8]
• Kelsey Edwards as Liz Fairchild^[8]

Production[]

Filming took place in Kamas, Utah in March 2019. Producer Matt Miller had known Robert Forster from a previous project, and sent the script to his agent. Director Jim Cummings said they "expected a polite 'no'" but Forster chose to take the role because he viewed it as "a dramatic movie about a father-son relationship, and complications of aging and health."^[11]

Release[]

In September 2020, Orion Classics acquired distribution rights to the film.^[4][12][13]

The film was released in limited theaters on October 9, 2020 by United Artists Releasing^[14][15][16] and on video-on-demand the same day.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Reception[]

Box office[]

In its opening weekend the film grossed $91,943 from 112 theaters.^[21]

Critical response[]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critics' consensus reads: "The Wolf of Snow Hollow treads somewhat unsteadily between horror and comedy, but writer-director-star Jim Cummings' unique sensibilities make for an oddly haunting hybrid."^[22] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[23]

John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Satisfying enough as a horror/slasher flick with a black-comedy aftertaste, it has some commercial appeal but doesn't represent a step forward artistically."^[24] Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com awarded the film three-and-a-half out of four stars and wrote: "The snow-covered setting and bumbling cops, along with Cummings' deadpan sense of humor, have led to comparisons to the Coen brothers and there is a sense of 'Fargo meets Silver Bullet' in some of The Wolf of Snow Hollow, but it’s not like Cummings wears his influences as obviously as some genre filmmakers."^[25]

Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "Wolf actually does that thing we all hope second features won't: It reveals that idiosyncrasies of an unproven director's debut weren't quirks so much as weaknesses — a disappointment for those of us hoping lightning might strike twice for the Thunder Road helmer."^[26]

Grant Hermanns of Comingsoon.net gave the film a 9.5 out of 10.^[8] Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine awarded the film three stars out of four.^[27] Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club graded the film a B.^[28] Don Kaye of Den of Geek awarded the film two and a half stars out of five.^[29] Vinnie Mancuso of Collider graded the film an A−.^[30] Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting awarded the film three skulls out of five.^[31] JimmyO of JoBlo.com gave the film a 9 out of 10.^[32]

References[]

External links[]

• The Wolf of Snow Hollow at IMDb
• The Wolf of Snow Hollow at Rotten Tomatoes

This article about a horror film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

• v
• t