It’s A Dog-Eat-Dude World Out There

In ‘The Wolf of Snow Hollow,’ brutal murders are happening under a full moon

Inside every man is a beast, just ask John Marshall — a recovering alcoholic who turns to booze, and rage, when his problems start to pile up. And he’s got problems. Marshall’s a small ski town cop with an estranged daughter, a dying father who also happens to be his boss, and to make matters more stressful there’s a serial killer on the loose. A serial killer who could be a werewolf.

This is all you need to know about the new movie The Wolf of Snow Hollow, a sly horror/comedy that combines the Coen’s Brother’s cold-blooded Midwest noir with The Howling, the first horror movie I ever saw. The Wolf Of Snow Hollow is also veteran actor Robert Forester’s final performance, and he delivers.

Forster was a handsome Hollywood leading man who I first remember as the square-jawed hero in Disney’s strange 1979 Star Wars-wannabe Black Hole. His career was revived thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s most underrated movie, Jackie Brown, a cool crime story about two middle-aged people having themselves a dangerous romance. He’s popped up all over the past couple of years, most notably, for me at least, as “Ed the Disappearer” in the Breaking Bad universe and as another sheriff in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return. R.I.P. you warm-hearted, good-looking oddball. You had kind eyes.

But the star of The Wolf of Snow Hollow isn’t Forster. It’s a dude by the name of Jim Cummings, who also wrote and directed the movie. I have no idea who he is but I want more movies from him. That’s an order? I guess I’ll start by watching his feature debut Thunder Road, which is an action-comedy named after a Bruce Springsteen banger.

As an actor, Cummings is surprisingly vulnerable. He looks like a frat boy and knows it. He’s also sensitive about alcoholism, especially the brief scenes where his character, John Marshall, speaks at an AA meeting. Marshall is sober, but sobriety is a fragile, and volatile, thing. He’s like a Faberge hand grenade.

I don’t know if the director-writer-star is making a statement about toxic masculinity or not but the work speaks for itself: Marshall is a man who struggles with big emotions. He loves his daughter and his father and his town and every moment of this movie he looks terrified of two things: werewolves and feelings he can’t control.

But don’t let my interpretation of the movie steer you towards or away from The Wolf Of Snow Hollow. I think this is a must-see for anyone who loves horror-comedies, which are a rare and delicate genre.

I’m a fan of movies like Tremors and Slither and Shawn of the Dead. The success of these kinds of movies depends on a filmmaker’s ability to juggle proportions, too much comedy, and the horror is spoiled, too much horror and it’s not funny. There are exceptions. Take A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors as an example. Its ratio of horror to comedy is definitely weighted towards horror, but there are a few laughs. It works.

In The Wolf of Snow Hollow, Cummings strikes a unique balance between droll, savage, and emotionally moving in his bloody full-moon thriller. So bravo for pulling that off.

I’d also like to shout out Riki Lindhome, as officer Julia Robson, the hero of The Wolf of Snow Hollow. As Officer Robson, Lindhome is folksy without being insincere playing a woman with a badge who has three jobs — protecting, serving, and dealing with the many sloppy emotions of the men she works with. If you’re looking for a personal virtue checklist, Officer Robson is a good character to emulate. She is loyal, serious, and compassionate. She’s not a lunatic with a gun. I would 10/10 watch her solve other grisly murders.