The Corner Penthouse

The Wolf of Snow Hollow is the latest film from actor/writer/director Jim Cummings - who is not the voice artist of the same name, best known as "Mr. Disney" for all of the voices he provides for Disney's animated canon. Read on to find out more about this other Jim Cummings' latest efforts...


The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) is the story of small-town detective John Marshall (Jim Cummings), who while struggling with a failed marriage, a rebellious daughter, and a lackluster department, is tasked with solving a series of brutal murders that are occurring on the full moon. As he's consumed by the hunt for the killer, he struggles to remind himself that there's no such thing as werewolves...


This film is generally classified as a "horror comedy", but that is quite inaccurate. Horror, sure. Comedy, not so much. Yes, there are a couple of moments of black humor, but nothing like classic horror comedies such as Ghostbusters, Young Frankenstein, Army of Darkness, and, of course, An American Werewolf in London. Simply put, the film was nothing like what I expected going into it.


What I ended up sitting through was a film that could best be described as a "threesome between Fargo, Twin Peaks, and Silver Bullet". I kept expecting for the mystery to come together in the end, but nothing made any damn sense. Things happened that had no bearing on the plot, such as a beer bottle thrown at a moving cop car in the middle of an empty field, or the argument between Marshall and his soon-to-be ex-wife. Apparently, there's a full moon every few days in Snow Hollow, which seems impossible. There is no effort made to show us any credible suspects. At one point, it seems like ALL of Snow Hollow's citizens are randomly brought in for questioning, even though we have no clue who any of them are or why the police thought to bring them in. In the lead-up to the reveal of the "wolf", the police are returning items to various citizens that they have kept for evidence, but we are not told why they kept all of these items from all of these random people in the first place. I do not recall any of these people being involved in any of the wolf attacks that we were shown.


By the time the film reaches its conclusion, and the "wolf" is revealed, you will be left wondering who that person is. I read that he actually appears throughout the film, but I have no interest in re-watching the film to find out. A film should provide a story that can be followed to a basic conclusion the first time around. You should only need to re-watch it to catch the little details that flesh out that story. If you need to watch a film multiple times just to get a basic understanding of it, then it fails. Remember, when you watch a film in the theater, you only get ONE viewing of it. It needs to properly convey its story in that one viewing, or else it loses its audience.


It doesn't help that the film spends the majority of its time looking at the mental breakdown of its central character, John Marshall. I think this was meant to distract the audience from the wolf mystery, but it just ends up alienating the audience. John is not a likable character, constantly screaming and lashing out at everyone around him. I'm rather surprised that no one - be it his sheriff father, the town mayor, or anyone else with power - has him relieved of his duties. He is clearly unfit to serve on the police force. Since we are left having to deal with him for the vast duration of the film, it doesn't help that Jim Cummings' acting leaves a lot to be desired. I never felt like I was watching a man going through a mental breakdown, but rather a man acting like he was going through a mental breakdown.


The rest of the cast is much better, though it's likely that you won't know any of them other than Robert Forster, to whom the film is dedicated, as John's ailing father Sheriff Hadley; and Riki Lindhome as detective Julia Robson, the force's second-in-charge. The stand out is Chloe East, who play's John's daughter Jenna. I didn't recognize her from her brief six-episode appearance as Val Wishart in the final season of the Disney Channel series Liv and Maddie, but here she gives a memorable performance in a make-out scene that turns into a wolf attack.


The Wolf of Snow Hollow is presented in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:24:43. Audio languages include English 5.1 DTS-HD MA and English Descriptive. The film includes English SDH and Spanish subtitles.


Here's a list of all of the bonus features that can be found on the Blu-ray disc. All are promotional items, complete with a credits block at the end. Two of them were released on the official Orion Pictures YouTube channel back in October 2020. Click on the first two titles in the list below to watch the official upload of the video.

• The Impetus (1:01) - Titled as "Making of...", this is an extremely brief EPK-style look at the making of the film.
• Working with Jim Cummings (1:42) - Various cast and crew members talk about what it was like to work with actor/writer/director Jim Cummings.
• The Story and the Genre (4:07) - A discussion of the film's story and its place in the horror/werewolf genre.
• The Design of the Werewolf (5:34) - The actor playing the wolf is fitted with the costume.

A digital copy code voucher is also included in the standard one-disc Blu-ray case, but it was invalid when I tried it. Even though Warner Brothers' system successfully redeemed the code, the redemption failed when passed through to Vudu because (as of December 2020) the movie was not listed on the Vudu site. The first print run includes a slipsleeve.


Although The Wolf of Snow Hollow is available on individual Blu-ray and DVD, I can't recommend it as a blind buy. I would suggest renting it through Amazon first to see if you like it before committing to a purchase.


All images were taken from the IMDB gallery of the film. This item has been provided by Warner Brothers for review on this site.