Medium Raw: Night of the Wolf (2010)

Capturing the sadistic serial killer "The Wolf" was just the beginning for rookie cop Johnny Morgan. As he escorts the monster to his new home in the dark underground halls of Parker's ... See full summary »

Director:

Andrew Cymek

Writer:

Andrew Cymek (screenplay)

Stars:

William B. Davis, John Rhys-Davies, Brigitte Kingsley

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
William B. Davis	...	Dr. Robert Parker
John Rhys-Davies	...	Elliot Carbon
Brigitte Kingsley	...	Jamie
Mercedes McNab	...	Gillian Garvey
Jason Reso	...	Officer Pete Gallant
Andrew Cymek	...	Johnny Morgan
Kristina Miller	...	Sabrina
Sandi Ross	...	Mabel Hatcher
Andrew Martin	...	Benjamin Jacobs
Greg Dunham	...	Harold Grierson
Landy Cannon	...	Carl
Shawn Lawrence	...	Oliver Walthrop
PJ Lazic	...	Victor Morales
Nola Augustson	...	Karen
Boyd Banks	...	Patient 66

Storyline

Capturing the sadistic serial killer "The Wolf" was just the beginning for rookie cop Johnny Morgan. As he escorts the monster to his new home in the dark underground halls of Parker's Asylum, bedlam ensues and Johnny along with a handful of civilians become players in a night of survival against the world's most terrifying inmates.

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Plot Keywords:

asylum | wolf | christian | animal in title | medium

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Taglines:

At Parker's Insane Asylum the Hunt Begins!

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Genres:

Fantasy | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 August 2010 (Canada)

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Black Walk Productions, Defiant Empire

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

User Reviews

Not one redeeming quality in this film whatsoever. Complete waste of time.

I was really looking forward to this one. It seemed like it had an interesting story and I'm always up for a good horror/thriller. Unfortunately, this is not a good horror/thriller. It's excruciatingly bad. Everyone involved with this production must have either been drunk or high when they decided to sign on to do this shoddy piece of crap cinema. And it's not even crappy in a good way. No tongue-in-cheek, no slight winks, no nods to other horror films, just completely devoid of any actual entertainment value -- I should have spent my 100 minutes more productively -- like maybe, plucking my nose hairs with a pair of rusty pliers or getting a root canal from an epileptic dentist. Yes, even those sound like a better time than Medium Raw: Night of the Wolf.

The movie starts out in the past and we see two kids (brother and sister, actually) playing hide-and-seek. The little boy picks a good hiding place and watches as his sister tries to find him. She doesn't -- she finds "The Big Bad Wolf", a serial kidnapper and murderer that's in the area, instead. He watches in horror as she is taken and does nothing about it. The Wolf has taken 15 girls and each time, he leaves a message at the scene of the crime: "Are you the woodcutter?" Flash forward to years later and the little boy, Johnny Morgan (Cymek, who also wrote and directed this mess of a movie) is having nightmares -- he's also a detective with the police force. He's separated from his wife, Jamie (Kingsley, who's nice to look at, but dear God who in their right mind would let her act?), who is a doctor at Parker's Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Now, I'm not a doctor myself but... I hardly doubt it's in any way professional to wear a mini-skirt and hooker boots while doing your daily rounds... maybe it's just me, I dunno. The Wolf resurfaces with his signature phrase and m.o. and detective Johnny is called in by his partner, Elliot (Rhys-Davies, putting on the melodrama a bit thick) to the scene of the disappearance. One clue found later and we're knocking down the back door of the alleged Wolf's hideout (because who needs warrants and backup, right?). It's a trap and long story short, the Wolf (Dunham) is captured and taken to Parker's Asylum. Everyone eventually winds up at the asylum (and I mean everyone) while it has a power failure and due to some unforeseen circumstance, all of the cell doors unlock and everyone's trapped inside with all the psychos, including a little girl, Sabrina (Miller), who's grandma thought it would be a good idea to bring her so Dr. Parker (Davis) could take a look at her because she stopped speaking after her mother died.

To call this movie bad is actually praising it. It's beyond bad, it's super bad. Bad walked in the door, saw this film and in no way wanted to be associated with it. The acting in the film is utterly atrocious. It's not even so-bad-it's-good kind of acting -- not by a long shot. Cymek only has about two facial expressions (and that's being generous) and Kingsley speaks in such a low tone, sing-song voice that's better suited for diaper commercials. I suppose William B. Davis did an okay job but he wasn't given much to work against.

So much happens in the film where you will be saying to yourself, "seriously...really?" Here are just a few examples. When The Wolf is admitted to the asylum, some of the guards give Dr. Parker his file, explaining that his lawyer will be coming to visit him to make sure his living conditions are adequate (seriously?) and if that's not bad enough -- when the doctor opens the file, there's a picture of the female lawyer in there (really? lawyers now have glamor head-shots?). When Johnny Morgan and his partner are in The Wolf's hideout and they hear a noise behind them, it takes them what seems like forever to turn and look over their shoulder to investigate the noise (seriously?) and when they do draw their guns, it looks like an 1800's war musket (really? our police forces use these?). Some of the psychos in the asylum are a very big guy who gets very upset when he sees the color red (seriously?) and a serial foot fetish guy (Lawrence) who likes to run around nude (really?). When Jamie's left hand gets a knife through it and is stuck to the table by a deranged cannibal (seriously?) -- she doesn't even try to escape while the cannibal (Ross) has her back turned cooking on the stove -- nope, instead, she scrawls a message in blood to Sabrina to "find Johnny" (really? You can't just pull the knife out yourself? You'd rather send a little girl through an asylum with escaped nutjobs?) There are many, many more instances like this in the movie.

I really wish I could say something nice about this movie, but I just can't. It's so incredibly awful. I would suggest turning it into a drinking game where everyone takes a shot when someone in your audience says "seriously?" or "really?", but to be honest, I don't want to be responsible for all kinds of deaths due to alcohol poisoning because at an almost two hour running time, I can imagine you'd be going through some serious booze at your house. Better yet, get super drunk before you watch this... Lord knows the cast and crew were if they thought this was good.

More reviews at www.soveryterry.com

Final Grade: F