The Curse of Wolf Mountain
There are some interesting ideas at the center of Keli Price’s screenplay for “The Curse of Wolf Mountain.” And having Tobin Bell show up right away as a psychiatrist whom tells the main character to go back to the place where his parents died after he begins to have nightmares about it is a good start to things. Unfortunately, there is not much to be said about the rest of the movie, which has some very familiar horror tropes and a twist that is, honestly, kind of stupid. The familiarity is one thing- films can overcome that and be entertaining- but the twist just leaves things feeling absurd. The central idea deserves better.
I like the idea of a main character having to face long-repressed traumas in a film; that makes for a good hook, and it’s something horror has done effectively over the years. Part of the reason “The Curse of Wolf Mountain” doesn’t work in approaching this material is how the film adds elements to the story- namely, this becoming a camping trip for six people instead of a personal journey; that certainly makes the twist “work,” as it work, but it also devolves the film into a slasher movie where it loses the core ideas along the way. Introducing Danny Trejo and his group of interlopers would have allowed for the same premise while keeping our attention on AJ- the main character in the film (and played by Price himself)- and his pregnant wife, Samantha (Karissa Lee Staples) as we see the boogeyman of Wolf Mountain hunt. Part of the problem with adding more characters into the group is that it sets up the familiar “are any of them the killer?” murder mystery and inciting premise feels like it’s missing. The execution by director David Lipper- who plays AJ’s brother Max- is not bad, and if the film were just about the kills, it would be serviceable. “The Curse of Wolf Mountain” has potential, but it can’t tap into that potential to becoming anything more than just a standard slasher movie, which isn’t usually a bad thing, but here, feels like something is missing.
