Directed by Adam MacDonald (Backcountry), from a screenplay by Enuka Okuma, the Canadian production Out Come the Wolves takes a fairly straightforward approach to telling a story about retired hunter Sophie (Missy Peregrym) who goes out to her family’s secluded cabin in the woods with her new fiancé Nolan (Damon Runyan), a writer who is preparing an article on his experience learning to hunt on this trip. Sophie invites her childhood best friend Kyle (Joris Jarsky) to help teach Nolan how to shoot with both a bow and arrow and a hunting rifle, and the two men prepare to head deep into the woods for a hunt.
Just before they head out, Nolan makes it clear to Kyle that he knows that he and Sophie slept together once when they were teenagers and that it doesn’t sit well with him. Clearly more of a brother to Sophie than anything else, Kyle is put off by this territorial male energy, which may or may not explain what happens next. Their hunt is cut short when the two men are ambushed by a pack of vicious wolves. Nolan bears the brunt of the attack, and rather than save him by shooting the wolves right away, Kyle may or may not allow the attack to continue far longer than it should have. Maybe he didn’t have a clear shot. Or maybe Kyle was good with letting Nolan become dog food.
Once the wolves disperse, Kyle heads back to the cabin to tell Sophie the news, and she's furious with him for for leaving Nolan to die and with no weapon to protect himself. She hops on her motorcycle and allows her long-abandoned hunting skills to return as she faces the deadly predators face to face.
Out Come the Wolves is unapologetically gory and allow us to see just how bloodthirsty these wolves can get, including a final shot of one character that is about as disgusting as anything I’ve seen this year, so points for that. The interpersonal male squabbling seems like an unnecessary layer of drama on a story that has plenty with just the survival aspect. Thankfully, when Sophie kicks things into gear, most of that nonsense disappears and we’re left with a really solid and tense thriller. At one point, Kyle says to her “He doesn’t deserve you,” and it makes us hate him instantly because he barely understands the nature of their relationship, and he comes across as a petty creep.
Those moments don’t ruin the movie, but they serve as periodic distractions that keep it from being truly great. Still, when the wolves come in to take on these humans, things are simply better for it. I’m assuming there aren’t any digital effects at work in this film, which means the wolves used in this work are well trained and particularly powerful actors. Nothing can take the place of a real animals tearing shit up and ripping flesh off the bone…and worse. This one took me by surprise and may spark future nightmares about animal attacks.
The film is now playing in theaters and streaming on VOD.
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