Wuchak
Sep 5, 2023
6/10
Wolfish slayings in a wintery village outside Denver
A small town in Colorado is plagued by grisly attacks involving a pack of wild dogs or some other animal, but they curiously only occur during the full moon. The brooding lead singer of a local rock band (Jamie Newcomb) teams-up with some fellow college students to resolve the problem.
“Lone Wolf” (1988) was made on a direct-to-video budget with no-name actors and a half-serious, half-hammy tone, yet it’s entertaining as comic book horror in the mold of a fun slasher, but possibly featuring a wolf-like creature. You can tell the cast had a good time. It’s superior to the contemporaneous "Night Shadow" and I’d watch it any day over "Silver Bullet.”
What’s interesting is that most of the students appear to be around 30. Sure, Colleen looks like she could be 18-21, but Julie and, especially, Deirdre and Eddie look past 30. The creators obviously kept the nature of the school ambiguous because of this factor, just calling it “Fairview School.” I guess it’s supposed to be a community college, yet all the school scenes were obviously shot at a high school (cited below). Hey, they had to shoot where they could afford.
There are four songs on the soundtrack by the hair metal band Tyxe, all written by Greg Leslie: “Raised On Rock & Roll,” “Misunderstood,” “Let It Rock” and “Rock You All Night.” These songs are evidently from their 1988 demo, but further information on the group is pretty much nonexistent. Their style is akin to bands like Dokken, Ratt and Warrant.
The movie runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot in the greater Denver area, including Adams City High School and Jefferson County.
GRADE: B-