The Wolf of Snow Hollow
orionFollowing up his 2018 breakout hit Thunder Road, filmmaker Jim Cummings is back with The Wolf of Snow Hollow. This time following a young police officer named John (Jim Cummings) whose stressful personal life is only further pushed as he is tasked with leading an investigation in a mysterious series of murders. Cummings embraces much more of a camp attitude when it comes to the film's comedy and emotional breakthroughs, which were promising at times, but ultimately is one of the key issues which leads the film to feel overall disappointing.
At the core of The Wolf of Snow Hollow is an identity crisis. The film both attempts to find powerful emotional depth and over the top comedy in a blend that doesn't do either full justice. Within the film, there is a legitimately great sense of camp humor that easily could have turned the film into a truly great comedy. Specifically within the performance from Jim Cummings, the comedic control of his emotions and small comments are truly impressive and the film's screenplay has countless small lines that will get audible laughs from audience members. Had the film committed to this comedic identity, the results would have been quite enjoyable, yet the film isn't satisfied with this identity.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow also tries desperately to be a film with legitimate depth and emotion. The character of John has multiple incredibly emotional situations he is attempting to deal with. From his father refusing to slow down despite his failing health, a toxic divorce and the added weight of having to face the families of the women being murdered, John is taking an emotional beating, yet the film shoots itself in the foot when it comes to these scenes. The blending of emotion and over the top comedy in Thunder Road worked, as the root of the comedy was in tragedy. The hysterical nature of Jim within that film was a direct result of his grief both for his marriage and recently passed mother. In The Wolf of Snow Hollow, the comedy is a larger fundamental choice put on the world meaning that when the film attempts to go deep, the result is laughably bad and awkward.
The depth is also frustrating from the perspective of Jim Cummings’ filmography. Whilst countless filmmakers have spent their careers exploring similar themes time and time again, the emotional thesis that The Wolf of Snow Hollow is disappointingly similar to Thunder Road with certain elements feeling like nearly exact copies. Ultimately in its areas of depth, there is nothing that The Wolf of Snow Hollow accomplishes which is unique or stand out when put into comparison to Thunder Road, which is going to be frustrating to those who were excited to see Cummings evolve as a filmmaker.
Whilst these elements ultimately come together to create a decent comedy that struggles when it tries to be more, the one element which truly hurts the film on a deeper level is its use of violence against women. Multiple think pieces have been published in recent years regarding cinema's use of brutal violence against women, which is the case in The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Every victim is a woman and the film shows them being brutally attacked and literally torn from limb to limb. Though at first it seems as if the film could be unaware of how this could be interpreted and viewed, the film takes it a step further acknowledging this trait and passing it off as a quirky joke. Where there is an absolute way to handle this trope comedically as a form of satire, the film turns the trope itself into the joke laughing at the violence being conducted against women rather than the gross social dynamics that often are behind this. This aspect of the film, though brief, is so incredibly tone deaf and ultimately points out an issue that extends past these few lines of dialogue into the entire feature. What makes it even more frustrating is that there is no reason that every scene of violence had to be against women and the acknowledgment of this choice confirms that it was a conscious decision by the film.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow had the tools to be an innocent quirky comedy but, in its attempts to push to be more, ended up falling down a frustratingly poor rabbit hole. From drama that doesn't connect or feel inspired to gross humor that, for seemingly no reason, pokes fun at the film's own problematic elements, The Wolf of Snow Hollow turns from a fun viewing experience to a anger inducing one rather abruptly and, ultimately, it is hard to recommend the film to most. For those who want to see the full genius of Jim Cummings, it is clear that Thunder Road is the much better option.
