Metacritic reviews

Which is scarier: a maniac in an orange ski mask wielding a hunting knife - or Jon Bon Jovi as a journalism teacher? Cry_Wolf gives us both, and though Bon Jovi is livin' on a prayer if he thinks he's an actor, the movie is a find.

A clever teen thriller with intricate plotting, deft characterizations, sharp ensemble performances and a darkly ironic twist at the end.

The low splatter quotient may not be enough to quell the blood lust of slasher fans, but several neat plot twists - and a surprise ending - make Cry Wolf a cut above the rest.

First-time screenwriters Jeff Wadlow and Beau Bauman prove more adept at staging mind games than creating chills and thrills for the audience.

A cut above the usual level of slasher films, with its overly convoluted plot enhanced by an impressive level of cinematic style. It also places a greater emphasis on surprising plot twists than gore.

But clichéd rapid-fire editing and cheap-looking digital-image manipulation drain away every ounce of atmosphere, and overexplanation blows what could have been a darkly ambiguous ending.

Almost totally reliant on red herrings and the viewer's nervous reflexes.

Director Jeff Wadlow and his co-writer/producer Beau Bauman throw in a couple of gripping sequences, especially one set in a library sub-basement with an energy-saving lighting system, but for a film that's essentially one big logic problem, there's an unfortunate absence of logic to the way its characters behave.

Cry Wolf is one of those movies that's rated PG-13 not because the producers wanted to get the broadest audience possible, but because no one 17 or older would be sucker enough to fall for it.

Cry_Wolf has nothing going for it.