Cry Wolf

Cry_Wolf
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jeff Wadlow
Produced by	Seth Gordon Beau Bauman
Written by	Jeff Wadlow Beau Bauman
Starring	Julian Morris Jon Bon Jovi Lindy Booth Jared Padalecki
Music by	Michael Wandmacher
Cinematography	Romeo Tirone
Editing by	Seth Gordon
Studio	Focus Features Rogue Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	September 16, 2005
Running time	Theatrical cut: 90 minutes Unrated cut: 94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,000,000
Gross revenue	$15,585,821

Cry_Wolf is a 2005 American murder mystery directed by Jeff Wadlow after he won $1,000,000 at the 2002 Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival.

Plot

This plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (May 2007)

The film begins in the woods where a woman, Becky (Erica Yates), is shot by a mysterious killer. The film then cuts to Owen Matthews (Julian Morris) arriving at Westlake Preparatory Academy. He meets a pretty red-haired girl who introduces herself as Dodger (Lindy Booth). After their encounter, Owen's roommate, Tom (Jared Padalecki), is introduced. That night Tom wakes Owen up telling him they are sneaking out. This is where the rest of the 'team' is introduced. Graham (Ethan Cohn), Mercedes (Sandra McCoy), Lewis (Paul James), Randall (Jesse Janzen), Regina (Kristy Wu), Tom, Dodger, Owen, and a few other students get together to play a game of lies, suspicion, and survival. When everyone closes their eyes, Dodger marks Owen as the wolf. At the end, it's Owen, Lewis, and Mercedes. Once Mercedes is voted out, Owen wins.

Coming into class late, Owen meets his new journalism teacher, Mr. Walker (Jon Bon Jovi). After class, Owen and Tom meet everyone at the lunch table to discuss what has happened. The police found Becky's body only because it was dragged through the woods by a wolf. The group talk about who could have murdered the "townie" when Dodger proposes something bigger. She wants to expand the game to involve the entire school. Owen follows her and tells her his idea. He wants to create a fake e-mail telling everyone about a serial killer who goes from campus to campus killing students every few years. They meet in the library and create the killer. An orange ski mask, a camouflage jacket, and a hunting knife. After they've created the killer, Owen, Dodger, Randall, Regina, Lewis, and Mercedes create the original victims. That night, they send out the e-mail and the rumors spread from there.

The next day, the entire school has spread the story that the group created. Mr. Walker confronts Owen about the e-mail warning him about the consequences of his actions. During a phone call to his dad (Gary Cole), Owen gets an instant message from someone using the name "Wolf". Tom and Owen blame Dodger, who could be on the computer after swim team practice. Owen confronts her about the "Instant Messages", but she's been studying with Regina all day. That leaves Owen to believe that it was either Graham, Lewis, or Mercedes. Owen rushes to his room and opens the door with the lights out, he can only see some of the room has been trashed. He turns to flip on the lights and when they come on, Tom comes forward and blames Owen for trashing his stuff in the room. The instant messenger comes up on Owen's laptop and they walk over to find a tongue stud and blood on Owen's keyboard. Tom blames Regina who had a recipe for fake blood. They call her and she tells them that she's been on an AP Biology field trip all afternoon.

Owen sees that Dodger is lying and he goes to the library to ask her. Owen finds out that Dodger was visiting her mother and that her mother lives in town. After being stalked by someone (who turns out to be a librarian), they leave the stacks and Owen ask her on a date. Dodger agrees, but she needed to go do something else. Before leaving, Owen attempts to kiss Dodger while a janitor watches them. Seeing the janitor, Dodger moves away, stating that she is "not a fan of the PDA'. After thinking that Randall was behind all of the weird behavior, he calls Jenny Ryder, the girl that Randall was supposed to meet. She tells Owen that Randall never went to state and she doesn't know what happened. Owen then tries to seek out Dodger, and Mercedes tells him she's going over a paper with Mr. Walker. Owen goes to wait for her, but sees Dodger kissing Mr. Walker.

The next day, Owen goes to journalism and when he goes into his bag for some paper and pen, a hunting knife falls out of his bag. Mr. Walker is escorting Owen to the Headmistress's office. On the way there, Owen tells Mr. Walker that he knows about the relationship with Dodger and that he will use the information to stay at West Lake. Mr. Walker agrees not to say anything and walks away, leaving Owen.

On the night of Halloween, Owen does not attend the party because he has to work. The Wolf comes into the cafeteria and attacks Owen. Running, Owen hides in Tom's car, but in a cliché move, sees the Wolf behind him. The back seat attacker ends up being Mercedes, who was trying to prove that some attackers can be women.

The following day, Owen and Mercedes each meet with the headmistress (Anna Deavere Smith) who decides that Owen's fate will be reached over the weekend. Owen, Dodger, Mercedes, Tom, Regina, and Lewis have to stay at the school over the weekend. Owen contacts the group to meet the Chapel that night. Owen, Dodger, Tom, Lewis, and Regina meet and they try to get to the bottom of the attacks. It appears that Regina was the one who was following Owen and Dodger in the stacks. Tom was the one who attacked Owen in the cafeteria and Lewis trashed the dorm room and it was Tom who put the knife in Owen's bag. Mercedes drove Randall to the bus station, so that they could keep Tom's car but that means that nobody knows where Randall is. Lewis calls Mercedes to make sure she drove Randall to state. While Lewis is on the phone, Mercedes takes a picture of herself while she's in the bathroom and sends it to Lewis' phone. He sees a figure in the background. She thinks it's Tom, but Tom is in the Chapel with everyone else. She gets attacked and Lewis goes to her. Owen tries to call for help, but to no avail.

Dodger and Regina believe that Owen is the one responsible and that he is going to tell them what happened. Owen then turns the tables and asks about Mr. Walker. Dodger tells him that she ended it and leaves the group extremely hurt. Tom spots something red on Regina's face. She looks and sees that it's blood. They follow the blood on the floor to find Randall in a confessional. Regina screams and wants to leave but Owen wants to go get Dodger. Tom and Regina give him time to go get her and he runs across campus to her dorm room. Owen gets into the stairwell when Lewis looks over the side at the top of the stairs on the third floor telling Owen that Mercedes is missing and he should get help. Lewis is attacked and his body is dragged behind a door. Owen hears Dodger scream and he goes to her room to see Tom's car leaving campus. He runs out to the parking lot to see that Mr. Walker is still on campus. Owen runs to Mr. Walker's office and Mr. Walker's phone starts to ring. Owen answers and it's Dodger crying. She found Mercedes and tells Owen that she was dead. Dodger tells Owen that she is coming to him and that she can see him through the window. He looks out to see the Killer coming up behind her. He attacks and kills her. Suddenly, Mr. Walker, comes inside. Owen notices that Mr. Walker has a jacket, an orange mask, and a knife. He then thinks that Mr. Walker just wanted to keep Owen around so that he could watch the story come true. Owen ends up shooting Mr. Walker. The door is suddenly opened by Dodger, Tom, and Regina.

The police come and Owen is arrested for murder. Randall, Tom, Regina, Dodger, Lewis, and Graham admit that it was just a prank to get Mercedes and Owen back for making them have to stay on campus. Owen is told that Mr. Walker was involved with Becky and that Owen had actually killed a wanted killer. The gun in Mr. Walker's desk was the same one that killed Becky. Owen is told that he has a visitor. The visitor is Dodger. She says that she would never have played the silly game if she knew that Mr. Walker was cheating on her. Then Owen realizes that Dodger was behind everything. Dodger was the one who had killed Becky because she was jealous of Mr. Walker's relationship with Becky. In the end, Dodger just asks, "Honestly, Owen, even if that were true, who would believe you?" The end frame shows Dodger killing Becky in the woods.

Cast

• Julian Morris as Owen Matthews
• Lindy Booth as Dodger Allen
• Jared Padalecki as Tom
• Kristy Wu as Regina
• Jon Bon Jovi as Rich Walker
• Sandra McCoy as Mercedes
• Paul James as Lewis
• Jesse Janzen as Randall
• Ethan Cohn as Graham
• Gary Cole as Mr. Matthews
• Anna Deavere Smith as Headmistress Tinsley
• Erica Yates as Becky

Release

The film was rated PG-13 for "violence, terror, disturbing images, language, sexuality, and a brief drug reference".

America Online also helped publicizing the film in July/August 2005; launching an alternate reality game for AIM users to play by sending instant messages to each other, which ran for the duration of the film's promotion. The game itself ran similarly to the popular game 'Mafia', just replacing villagers and mafia with sheep and wolves.

Reception

At the box office, Cry_Wolf grossed $10,047,674 domestically and $5,537,821 internationally, making a worldwide total of $15,585,821.^[1]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Cry Wolf

• Official website
• Cry_Wolf at the Internet Movie Database
• Cry_Wolf at Allmovie
• Cry_Wolf at Box Office Mojo