OUT COME THE WOLVES

(director/writer: Adam MacDonald; screenwriters: Enuka Okuma, story by Joris Jarsky, Adam MacDonald & Enuka Okuma; cinematographer: Christian Bietz; editor: Pamela Bayne; music: Lee Malia; cast:  Missy Peregrym (Sophie), Damon Runyon (Nolan), Joris Jarsky (Kyle); Runtime: 86; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Eric Bernberg, Owen Kelly, Missy Peregrym, Thomas Walden, Thomas Vencelides; IFC Films/Shudder; 2024-Canada)

“Low-budget Canadian thriller about a hunting trip that goes awry.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Adam MacDonald (“Hunting Daze”/”The Integrity of Joseph Chambers”) directs this half-assed low-budget Canadian thriller about a hunting trip that goes awry. The action takes place in an unnamed wilderness. It’s written by Enuka Okuma, and is based on a story by Okuma, Adam MacDonald and Joris Jarsky.

Sophie (Missy Peregrym) and Nolan (Damon Runyon) are engaged. They live in an unnamed Canadian city, where the squishy Nolan is an editor for a food ‘zine and Sophie works in a beauty salon. The couple trek to the woods and stay in a remote cabin. The city boy Nolan is researching a story about hunters and the food they eat for an article he wants to write. Sophie, who was once a hunter and was raised in the country, asks her arrogant childhood friend Kyle (Joris Jarsky), they once slept together, an experienced hunter, who works p/t at a co-op and lives in the woods, to help Nolan hunt. At the last minute Kyle notifies the couple his girlfriend couldn’t make it because of work (which turns out to be a lie). 

Nolan is jealous and suspicious of him, as Sophie goes to bed and the men get drunk together in the cabin and defame each other.

The next day they go hunting with only bows and arrows. Kyle shamefully leaves behind a bleeding Nolan when a pack of wolves attack. Sophie then must fight off her ex’s animal-like sexual advances on his return. But she talks Kyle to go back in the woods with her to rescue Nolan, who is surrounded by the wolf pack who attacked him. The third act shows the attempt to rescue a Nolan, who is out of his elements, as the antagonistic men have to put their differences aside to survive.

It is hard to sink your teeth into the dull love-triangle plot. The photography is subpar (except kudos for using real wolves). The acting is efficient in a workmanlike way, but far from great. The unimaginative indie B film is a turn off with its uninspired story.

REVIEWED ON 1/10/2025  GRADE: C
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