_**Grisly slayings in a winter hamlet in Utah**_

An up-and-coming Sheriff (Jim Cummings) wants to prove himself when horrific murders suddenly grip his remote town near Christmas time. Is it an animal, a human or something… else? Robert Forster plays the soon-to-retire dad and Riki Lindhome a subordinate officer. Manly Jimmy Tatro is also on hand.

“The Wolf of Snow Hollow” (2020) is a mystery/thriller with horror elements and a zippy sense of black humor. It has the setting of “Donner Pass” (2011), “Snowbeast” (2011) and “Silent Night” (2012), but a different threat mixed with clever amusement.

This is a solid piece of full moon entertainment by writer/director/star Jim Cummings. I loved the snowy locations and Chloe East is a highlight on the feminine front, along with Amanda Brown in a small role. Meanwhile the humor is amusing. Yet the flick’s a little too frenetic for its own good. Cummings coulda reigned things in for some more mood, but it’s his movie, not mine.

The film runs 1 hour, 25 minutes, and was shot in Kamas, Utah, which is a about 25 miles east of Salt Lake City, on the other side of the mountain range.

GRADE: B-/B

I don’t watch many horror films at all. It just isn’t a genre I care for. The one exception I tend to make is if a horror flick is laced with humor. The Wolf of Snow Hollow has humor, some of it subtle and situational.

But as it happens, there was a second reason I wanted to watch this movie, and that is Robert Forster. I have always liked his work, and this is his last film, I believe, and it is dedicated to him in the credits. Without him in it, I would still have watched it. It kept me just interested and entertained enough to stick with it. The ensemble cast does a pretty good job wiyh a reasonable intelligent plot and script. I don’t imagine I will feel compelled to watch it again, but I don’t regret the time it took to watch it once.

i'll give jim cummings the benefit of the doubt for his acting, especially because i've never seen his other roles and plus, his daughter's behavior mimicked his a lot in those last scenes - i think it was a purposeful choice and it worked. after all, his character isn't meant to be likable or sympathetic, he's a classic antihero. and if you haven't had the misfortune of meeting someone like that in real life, i'm sorry to tell you that they do actually exist to be that intolerable and inept. his characterization was distinct enough to feel intentional and therefore sincere, rather than generically bad acting, and i loved the character, in an "i have never wanted to duct tape a human being's mouth this badly before" kind of way.

the story was good, plot was fun and easy to follow. it's very fargo and twin peaks in mood, and i think a lot of the tag lines and info on the movie does it a disservice by characterizing it as a serious, dark kind of horror. if you do that to a movie that's comedic in nature, it ruins what everyone is expecting from the movie. it primes people to take things seriously instead of catching onto the joke, and that leaves a disappointing taste in a persons mouth even if the movie is legitimately great. and i think this movie is that! it's definitely not 100% original, but i think it fits its genre well and i enjoyed every bit of it.