The first thing you should know about The Wolf of Snow Hollow is that you’ll wish every character in the movie gets killed within the first 30 minutes. The second thing to know is that there is a good werewolf movie buried somewhere in here. The third thing to know is that “buried” does not mean “realized.”
Mercifully short at 85 minutes, The Wolf of Snow Hollow stars Jim Cummings as Officer Marshall, the most obnoxious protagonist of 2020. Cummings spends the entire movie shouting his lines with ridiculous urgency, and while his performance is surely a purposeful decision under the guidance of the director, who just so happens to be a guy named Jim Cummings. His bad acting really kills the potential for Snow Hollow to be an effective crime/horror thriller.
The rest of the cast seem lost in the bad screenplay, which half-introduce several characters without willingness to give them anything to do. The late Robert Forster is in the film for some reason, but Cummings doesn’t seem to know how to use him. Riki Lindhome also seems to linger on the fuzzy border between leading lady and supporting character, but the fuzziness does her no favors.
Snow Hollow pitches itself as a horror-comedy, but if the inflated acting and abrupt storytelling was supposed to translate into humor, it was lost on me.
It’s better as a horror thriller, but Cummins doesn’t dwell on those elements long enough to give this creature feature life. While I liked how the movie concludes, the execution and dedication to the reveal are underwhelming.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow maintains a mild level of entertainment value, but no matter how you look at it, it simply isn’t very good.
Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.
