Saturday, August 3, 2024

Scream of the Wolf, Bring Back Nurse Price!

Nurse Price (Jenny Agutter)! Beautiful nurse-in-white in great peril as her new American BF is a werewolf. Alas, the sultry nurse, who gives us a nice shower scene and cares for the titular character in 1981's "An American Werewolf in London" is not in our film today. So sad. Even sadder, nurses today are stocky and have shed the alluring white uniforms for baggy green scrubs. You know who is in this film? You'll never guess!  Rula Lenska!  Okay, not much of a trade-off, I admit. Today we look at a 2022 film that pays homage to that 1981 werewolf film. Our feature today is "Scream of the Wolf" (aka "Wolf Manor"), directed by Dominic Brunt. Have you noticed that nurse's today, unlike the sweet and comely Nurse Price, are all grouchy and demanding that you give them respect. You try demanding respect, see how far it gets you!

Okay, a vampire film starring Oliver Lawrence (James Fleet) is being shot at the mansion of The Great Mascalini (Shuane Harrison). The Great Mascalini? A magician who went missing 20 years ago while touring the Carpathian Mountains. The Blue Moon will sub for The Slaughtered Lamb as two film executives ask directions. The locals want no part of them and send them away, on foot. They'll be eaten by a werewolf. At the mansion, the past-his-prime Oliver dons a vampire's cape and fangs and tries to get through his lines. Oliver is battling the bottle and losing. Fiona (Thaila Zucchi) tries to keep him focused but a werewolf outside is shredding crew. First the boom-lady (Sade Malone) and the f/x guy (Martin Portlock) get ripped from limb to limb...and eaten. Then the werewolf gets bolder and comes right up to the manor house.

Desperately trying to sober up Oliver, Fiona and the crew don't notice that two of their buddies are missing. Oliver has that double nightmare dream about being in a bed in the woods and then opening up a cabinet (instead of curtains). You remember that one. In the 1981 film it looked as if Nurse Price was shredded until David Naughton woke up screaming. The kills will be gory. Limbs will fly. Guts will be ripped out. Heads will be knocked off the old block. Oh!  Rula Lenska?  The Great Mascalini?  Let's just say do not turn this film off as the end credits roll.

Will vampire actor Oliver have a shot at squaring off against a real monster? What happened to the missing magician all those years ago in the Carpathian Mountains? Will nurses ever be pretty again...and be clad in either tight or latex white uniforms? Fans of the 1981 classic John Landis film will notice a lot of references to it.  For a gory werewolf film with classic werewolf themes, see "Scream of the Wolf." 


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