 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 2020 release, The Wolf of Snow Hollow, and I'd heard a good amount of stuff about this and I'd heard good things about this, so I wanted to make sure I checked it out. Some people have even said it was their favorite horror film of 2020, and I can see where people really love that. Now that said, I'll tell you up front, I don't think it's the most amazing horror film of 2020, but is it good? Certainly it is good. There's a lot of good things to say about it, and I do recommend people seeing it. It is worth your time for sure. And I was even thinking about it, I would probably watch this film again, which there are plenty of horror films I watch and I'm like one and done. This one I would like to see again. So anyway, written and directed by Jim Cummings, who also plays the main character of John Marshall as well. I'll talk about his performance a little bit in a little bit. He's done films No Flood Wall here, Thunder Road, and The Beta Test. This film was actually filmed in Utah, so you don't hear about a whole lot of films being done in Utah, so I thought that was interesting. The producer on this film, Matt Miller, actually knew Robert Forster, who is also in this film, as the main sheriff who's kind of aging out, who's John Marshall's father. And so John Marshall will be taking over, basically, after his father, because it's kind of a small town. So they got Robert Forster, who they didn't fully expect to get, because producer Matt Miller had worked on a previous project with him. They both expected him to kind of pass, but apparently he was so interested in the father-son dynamics of the two of the characters in it that he signed on because he just loved the dynamics there. And that speaks to something that is on very good display here, which is the script is good. The writing is really good. And the other thing is the script is very tight. And that's one of the things that you don't find a whole lot with people making films these days. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. But Robert Forster, some of the bigger things he's been in, Alligator, Jackie Brown, and Mulholland Drive, just things that I think this audience, people watching this video, would connect with. So I'm not doing any spoilers on this, except a little bit thematically, because it's a newer film, and I want people to just check it out. So you should definitely check it out. So a quick synopsis on this. Basically, some people start ending up dead in Snow Hollow, which is a remote town, very snowy, as it would say in the name of the town. And the local police department is working to solve that, because people are like, is there a werewolf out there? So it is a werewolf type film, but in the end, it's very much a character piece about John Marshall and his kind of situation. And it's a very human film, and that's one of the things I love about it so much. It's not just a straight up horror film. It's a character piece. It's about being human. It's about, when I say being human, it's about being imperfect, but being still able to overcome things and be the person that people want you to be, the person that you want to be, things like that. It's complicated, and that's real life. And that's one of the great things about the film. So there's beautiful scenery in this, as you could probably imagine, with it being in Utah and in a snowy town. It's constantly covered with snow, which looks amazing, because there are mountains and yeah, a lot of cool aerial shots, which I assume they did with drones. Very nice. The music is, I was going to say pretty over the top. The music gets pretty over the top at times. It gets a little bit over the top at times, and sometimes it's totally fine. So it really kind of hits this range. It's all over the place, but you do get used to it. Like I was having some problems with it early on because I like more restrained music in my films, so it was a little tough for me to adjust, but I eventually did end up adjusting to the more in your face over the top music. That's one thing I would like to have kind of changed is to pull that back. In fact, one of the most impactful and tense and awesome scenes in the film towards the end of the film has barely any music to it. It has actually a long stretch of silence, which is what serves that scene so well. Because you can focus more on the line delivery, the physical acting of the characters involved, and just the feeling of this tension building. That's a great scene. So it speaks to the power of being super restrained with music. And I think that should have been throughout the entire film. But like I said, some people will be totally fine with that. It's just my personal thing. The acting is okay. I'm not gonna say it's great acting for the most part. There's some people who do a better job than you would think based off a bunch of the other people in this. Robert Forster obviously does an excellent job because he's a very seasoned actor. Jim Cummings, writer, director, and who plays John Marshall, I was saying. He, it's weird because it's like it varies scene to scene for me. Overall, I'd say he did a good job. But there are these scenes where I just feel like he takes the character too far. He gets a little too ridiculous. He goes a little too over the top with the way he plays it. Now it's mitigated a little bit by the fact that it's a film that has comedy to it. And that's a whole other thing, which is that sometimes the comedy really does hit. And sometimes it really misses. So it's a full range. It's in between the really hits and really misses. It hits everything in there pretty much. So just know that you're not always gonna laugh at what's supposed to be funny. Sometimes you're gonna cringe and be like, that was supposed to be funny. There are some pretty old references in it that I was like, ooh, really? We're, that's not holding up right now. And it's like, but you know, who knows when the script was originally started or originally completed because scripts take a long time to come to film sometimes. Yeah, but overall, I like the fact that they had this be comedic. It keeps a really interesting fun feeling to the film and it injects something different. Some people may watch this and be like, it kind of feels a bit like Wolf Cop, if you've ever seen the Wolf Cop films. And there are things that feel like that. There are aspects that I feel like some people could say they took from Wolf Cop. But overall, it does its own thing. Even though it has that little bit of a feel, it does its own thing. It focuses on its own story that it wants to tell. And it certainly gets more serious at times than Wolf Cop does for sure. So overall, I like the comedic approach to it mixed with horror. But not everything lands. In fact, there's some really bad jokes that I was just like, really, you're trying to make people laugh with that? Just, yeah. But overall, there's some not that great acting in this, which you would assume for kind of a lower budget film, which I assume this is, so you can't knock it too hard. One of the things about the lesser acting that does show up in it, it kind of gives it a little bit of a made for TV movie feel. Yeah. And a little bit of how it looks gives it a little bit of a made for TV movie feel. Now that said, it overperforms for what seems like that type of film, especially with what I was saying, the script. And it's a very interesting, engaging story, in my opinion. The mystery of what's going on as the police end up working this case is very, very engaging. I think they pace discoveries out quite well in this. They give you the breadcrumbs at really good intervals. And this kind of speaks to what I was saying about the script being really tight. It keeps moving. It really keeps moving. And how many movies can you say you've watched and it just, it moves the whole time pretty much? Not many. So I feel like the script and how tightly it was written and how good the story is. It's a huge achievement. I think Jim Cummings really killed it with this. I would love to see him write more scripts. Sure, direct more films. I think the directing was good. And I don't, you know, the acting, depending on the character, because like I was saying, some of the scenes he was really over the top. And it was like, do we need to go that far with this? Because it took it from comedy to ridiculousness at times. Some people may like that, but for me, but Jim Cummings, a very talented writer, very talented writer. I want to see where he goes after this. Oh, sorry. Sorry about that noise from my phone. It's been doing weird stuff lately. I go, because of kind of the acting of Jim Cummings and the John Marshall character, I go, I went back and forth with if I liked the character or didn't like the character. So it was kind of like a scene by scene thing. But also because of who the character is, I think in general you are supposed to feel, do you like the character? Do you not really like the character? Because like I was saying, it's very human. He's a very complicated human being like we all are pretty much. So there's good and there's bad. Like it's like that for everyone, you know, just like this individual is going after a monster, he is dealing with his own monsters at the same time. So there is that kind of parallel that goes on within the film of chasing a monster and dealing with your own monster at the same time. And you'll see what I mean if you see the if you see the film or if you've already seen the film, you'll know what I'm talking about. They do a good job of capturing the feeling of the police being overwhelmed and having kind of too many tips, too many people coming to them with strong opinions, the pressure of the locals to get this case solved quickly. And that's partially done through the acting. That's partially done through the music a little bit. And but also the directing and some of the cinematography is like they end up doing some of these kind of like quick cuts. They make they make things look kind of dizzying. They quicken things up. And I think just all those things kind of come together and just make you as an audience member feel the overwhelming feeling and the stress that these police officers, particularly John Marshall, are feeling with the weight of this case and how they're getting frustrated because they're not getting it solved. And they have all this pressure from the locals to get it done. So I like that that was put into the film and the audience could feel it because that doesn't happen a whole lot. And that once again, that not only speaks to the script writing, but it also speaks to the ability of the directing, cinematography, the editing as well. So and the editing is also part of how it moves at such a good pace. The movie does use a lot of montages and intercutting of some scenes, but I think that it actually does help for that kind of like frantic, stressful feeling for the film. So at times, I was a little bit jarred by that. But then I was kind of like, I think I'm kind of supposed to feel that way. And it ended up rolling in with that kind of stress. So it works. And then, like I said, this bears repeating that tense scene at the end with barely any music that's really, really tense. And it kind of builds really focused great acting in that scene. It's two people. And yeah, I really enjoy that scene. That is probably my favorite part of the movie. The script is pretty tight. Like I said, I'm going to keep saying it. Great script writing, Jim Cummings. Great script writing, great pacing. I never got bored with this film. And that's one of the reasons I said I would love to watch this film again because it felt light. It felt fun, even though it wasn't always and it moved. It just kept moving. The film plays with ideas of predators and predatory behavior in a few different ways, which you could probably assume with a title like The Wolf of Snow Hollow. There's a focus on aging and kind of the hard feelings that come with the quick passage of time and kind of an increasing inability to accomplish things. That's one small thing. There are a lot of kind of themes in this film. It's very rich with them. The relationship between John Marshall and his share of father, hits a lot of real issues between father and son, such as father covering up his his personal issues, son trying to talk the father into taking it easy and father not trusting the son to take care of things if he's not there. Now, I this, you know, resonated with me because my father is kind of the way the sheriff was in this. John Forrester's character of, you know, always I'm fine. I'm fine, no matter what's going on, even if they're, you know, physical problems. I'll just push through. I'm fine. I need to be here to supervise to make sure things go right. You know, they don't fully trust you type thing, even though they say they do, you know, one of those things. So it felt very real. And this once again goes back to the script writing where realistically written in that sense, the characters are rich. The characters seem realistic. Being flawed and very human, no matter who you are or have to be in life is really at the heart of this film. And that goes back to me just saying how human it is, how imperfect the people are, and that's important. So quite a good film. I really did enjoy this one. You know, I already pointed out there are some flaws in it that I didn't really like, but overall it's really worth it. And I hope that more people experience this film. So out of five stars with half stars in play, I'm giving it a full on four star rating. I do really like this. And yeah, I want to watch it again. So anyway, thanks everyone for checking this out. You can put comments down here, spoilers in the comments. Go ahead, have at it. Let's talk about this film geek out about it. But do me a quick favor, hit that subscribe button if you like this video or any video you've ever seen on my channel, because that is your way to repay me. I'm not making money doing this or anything. 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