The Wolf Of Snow Hollow review

THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW (2020) 

Directors: Jim Cummings

Starring: Jim Cummings, Riki Lindhome, Robert Forster

Runtime: 83 min

 

 

Writer/director/actor Jim Cummings has a very distinct style of filmmaking. It was on vivid display in Thunder Road (2018) where he played a cop on the verge of a nervous breakdown and it is again evident here, where he plays a cop on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 

However, this is a different cop and a very different film, even if the peculiar stylistic ticks that distinguish it remain. This time the cop, Jim Marshall, is a slightly more sympathetic creation.

 

And how to describe the style? It's in the same general ballpark as director Jared Hess of Napoleon Dynamite fame - a strange slight amateurism edge pervades proceedings with an oddly stylised edge to the performances and dialogue. But this lacks the essential sweetness of Hess' work. 

 

It's more like a left-field take on Jim Carey's character in Me, Myself & Irene, with childish anger threatening to break through at any moment. Throughout the film characters get into childish arguments, often in the middle of serious events, bickering when they really shouldn't be.

 

And all this stylistic weirdness is tacked onto a werewolf plot. Or maybe not. Townsfolk in the small titular snow-bound location are being killed by something that certainly resembles a werewolf. The deaths sit somewhere between funny and disturbing; it's that sort of film. Officer Marshall doesn't believe the stories but as bodies keep piling up...

 

Robert Forster, sadly in his last role, plays Marshall's father, the proper chief of police, ailing and refusing to go to hospital. That and Marshall's battle with alcohol, and the rising death count all add pressure and by the end, despite his childish and often pretty irritating behaviour, you genuinely begin to feel for Cummings' put-upon cop.

 

Ultimately I kinda liked this film despite itself. I frequently looked at the screen in disbelief at some of the amateur tropes on display - frequently actors look straight at the camera - but that constant aura of unexpectedness keeps you on your toes and does hold your attention. The film is often slightly funny. Or perhaps that's "very funny" if you're in the right slightly demented frame of mind.

 

Think Fargo crossed with Napoleon Dynamite and you won't be too far off.