Watching: The Wolf of Snow Hollow

  I watched this film recently and wanted to write a small review and share some screencaps of the film.

    The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) is an interesting and at times darkly funny film. A recovering alcoholic cop with severe anger issues has to keep himself together while investigating a horrifying string of murders that seem to be perpetrated by a supernatural killer. He very much does not keep his shit together as more and more evidence seems to point towards a werewolf being the killer.

    I really enjoyed how all the characters felt like real and flawed people. What I find especially done well is that our victims aren't just nameless one notes either, the film makes sure to give us little vignettes of who they are before they meet their gruesome end. It's not something I see often and it helps heighten this feeling of what's at stake and how it's affecting everyone around them. Not that I mind, of course, an exciting creature feature or slasher with a high and impersonal kill count, but a story with pathos is a refreshing change.

    Some of the dialogue and its references are slightly hit or miss but overall I thought the dialogue was clever and the character interactions felt real. I had the same feeling of "these people are real" that I got from films like Fatal Attraction, where little every day conversations felt very grounded. At the same time, I really enjoyed the over-the-top breakdown of the cop main character as his anger and addiction issues return due to stress. There's a beautiful performance from Robert Forster as well, RIP. The film very much focuses on generational mental illness and trauma and how it passes from parents to children. The sheriff has severe anxiety and won't get help for his heart condition, his son (the main character) struggles with anger and addiction, and we see how this affects his college-age daughter as she prepares for her first semester away from home.

    Now: some things I didn't care for, and a major spoiler of the ending.

    While all clues seem to point to werewolf- the brutality and strength of the killing, the animal qualities and the human qualities of attacks, and the actual creature seen on screen- there's a twist ending that I found very out of place. In tracking our killer, our main character (who still suspects a human killer) pieces together who is responsible for the murders and confronts a taxidermist. It turns out that our "werewolf" was the taxidermist in a self made costume of animal skin- literally a fursuiter. We even get tipped off to the connection through a discovery of a taxidermy tool- a seam ripper of sorts. Note: furries joke sometimes about seam rippers as a shorthand for fursuit sex, since they can be used to pop the crotch seams of a fursuit/bodysuit for stealthy sex. I imagine this is just a coincidence since a seam ripper is a normal sewing tool for correcting mistakes but it was too funny not to point out. While it's a funny twist, it didn't work for me as an ending, and made it harder to believe some of the brutal physical violence, power, and speed of the werewolf on screen. It felt a bit tacked on, as if the film needed a big "gotcha" for the ending. Shame, the werewolf "costume" did look great.

    Here's some screen caps of the werewolf.