A couple of years ago, an actor/writer/director named Jim Cummings blew me away with his Thunder Road, one of the best films of 2018. In it, Cummings played a troubled cop whose life goes to shit after the death of his mother.
Now comes The Wolf of Snow Hollow, a solid follow-up that doesn’t quite rise to the heights of Thunder Road—but it does show that Cummings has some good ideas left to share onscreen.
The film (which he again writes, directs and stars in) takes on the horror genre from one of its more inconsistent angles: the werewolf movie. There are not a lot of great werewolf movies out there, so this one finishes in the top half of the Werewolf Movie Genre List quite easily.
Cummings plays a sheriff dealing with deteriorating relationships, a dying father (the great Robert Forster, in one of his final roles) and substance abuse. And, oh yeah, he’s dealing with an apparent werewolf killing young women in his jurisdiction.
The film is effectively scary, brutally honest and darkly funny, with Cummings delivering another memorably bonkers performance. Forster steals his scenes; hats off to Cummings for giving him a final role worthy of his greatness.
The wolf itself is a decent creation for low-budget fare, and Cummings gets credit for making this more than just a horror film. It’s got a lot of depth and heart—traits that are not common in your average werewolf movie.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow is now available via online sources including iTunes and Amazon.com.