Scream of the Wolf

A retired hunter and a police chief track what could be a werewolf.

Scream of the Wolf is pretty poor, even by TV standards. It dates itself at every possible opportunity, and has one of the worst soundtracks I can recall.

Director Dan Curtis makes due with what he has, and is obviously working with a small budget. However, by shooting from the monster’s point of view, he manages to create some memorable sequences that work even though we don’t see the monster—similar to Sam Raimi’s work in the Evil Dead films.

Peter Graves stars and plays, well Peter Graves. Really his performance here is indistinguishable from his work on A&E’s “Biography”. That’s not to say he’s bad, he’s actually reasonably enjoyable, just don’t look for any great range.

The script is pretty standard TV fare, which is disappointing considering writer Richard Matheson’s other material. Though Scream of the Wolf run 78 minutes, the script really only has about an hour’s worth of story in it.

Thus, unless 1970s werewolf mysteries really do it for you, leave this one alone.