Within the opening credits we’re promised a slice of high caliber horror with a small cameo from horror icon Caroline Munro and an investigator seeking the source of a spate of brutal killings in the small town of Deadington. Shortly followed by some swanky James Bond-esque credits, enforcing a welcome to a thrill ride in British horror.

 

Then it all travels downhill quicker than a werewolf can transform back into its human form. Unfortunately, at it’s heart ‘Crying Wolf’ is a comedy of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ proportions mixed with some darker moments of violence and gut wrenching scenes of death. A heart that has somehow been ripped out in the editing suite as a 91 minute running time feels far too long with too much crammed in that leave ‘Crying Wolf’ feel like a bad attempt at an anthology film with a single narration running through. It’s hard to understand that behind the film lies one director as the span of stories feel like polar opposites.

 

There is a wealth of entertainment to be had inside this box of treats and like many anthology collections before it, is diluted by some of it’s weaker efforts. Not even ‘ABC’s of Death’ managed to mix zombies, werewolves, vengeful psychopaths and ninjas and within Crying Wolf’s modest budget, suffers greatly.

 

In one scene, the film tears it’s way at being a chilling werewolf flick but shortly after shredding at the next victim, flashes to a scene of a ninja attacking a drunken stumbler and slicing him into several CGI chunks. No rhyme nor reason but rather just because.

 

The over-the-top performances shared with the actors won’t put their names in lights and while the fun they seemed to have may have made for a great experience, simply comes across as a painful memory of knowing the potential that ‘Crying Wolf’ had. Jopia's previous movie, 'Deadtime' manged to balance a low budget with comedy and horror to make it a well reseived classic, this however is less ‘Crying Wolf’ and more crying shame.

 

That’s not to say that ‘Crying Wolf’ is not without its moments as some scenes work well especially those focussing on the primary story arc following a group of ramblers heading to a camp site in the company of wolves while very british, is enough to keep you gripped. At times, more ‘Carry On’ than carry on watching and it is unfortunate that there are far too many ideas thrown at something that could have been a great low budget horror-comedy. There simply is too much thrown in that the budget is beyond stretched and it shows.

 

Amidst the end credits there is a behind the scenes look at how the films cast and crew had fun on set, something which doesn’t translate through the lense, luckily this wasn’t in 3D… Oh wait, there is a 3D version!