Cry_Wolf (2005): C

For its surprising first twenty minutes, Cry_Wolf exhibits a self-reflexive desire to address the teen slasher film’s penchant for simplistic misdirection and tedious serial killer construction via the use of predetermined criteria (weapon and disguise of choice, quirky modus operandi, etc.). After such a tantalizing opening, however, it becomes just what it was beginning to deconstruct – a tedious throwaway horror film without a logical marble in its head. At a ritzy boarding school, eight high school seniors decide to expand upon their casual games of deception by creating an email-propagated story about a ski mask-wearing killer dubbed The Wolf. When each of the kids begins dying at the make-believe fiend’s hands, however, recent transfer student and all-around “good guy” Owen (Julian Morris) takes it upon himself to uncover who’s behind the slayings. Had Owen been paying attention to the intro section’s conversations about deceit – specifically, how the most successful way to mislead people is to cast doubt on innocent others – he would have figured out that the mastermind behind Cry_Wolf’s fatal game was staring him straight in the face. But it’s hard to fault the kid for being a bit slow on the uptake when, besides fending off death, he also has to come to terms with the sight of Jon Bon Jovi (as an amoral teacher) giving love a bad name by engaging in some sleazy faculty-student hanky-panky.