Wolf Garden Has a Cool Premise but Subpar Execution

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with werewolves. On the one hand, I’m a huge fan of these classic creatures, so pretty much any time I hear about a new werewolf movie, I have to check it out. But more often than not, I come out of these films sorely disappointed. For some reason, this subgenre has a disproportionately low number of worthwhile entries, so it feels like every time I think I might’ve found the next good werewolf movie, it ends up being just another lupine letdown. That happened to me earlier this month with the Netflix film Viking Wolf, and I’m sad to report that Wolf Garden is just more of the same.

Wolf Garden was written and directed by Wayne David, and David also stars in the movie along with Sian Altman, Grant Masters, and Jake Wood. It’s about a man named William who’s secluded himself in a remote cabin in the middle of the woods, and while there, he experiences frightening visions of his girlfriend Chantelle.

William’s backstory is never explicitly laid out, but the film gives you enough flashbacks and brief exposition dumps that you can piece it together pretty easily. Apparently, he brought Chantelle to that same house some time not too long ago, and at first, their little getaway was going great. However, that all changed on one fateful night. Chantelle was attacked by a werewolf, and her life with William came to an abrupt and bloody end. Now, William is both mourning her loss and isolating himself from the rest of the world, and to prevent this from happening to anyone else, he keeps a mysterious creature locked away in his shed.

On paper, that sounds like a pretty cool idea for a horror movie, but unfortunately, Wolf Garden botches the execution. For starters, I thought William was pretty unconvincing. Right from the get-go, it felt like he was just going through the motions, so I couldn’t form any sort of attachment to the character. To be clear, I’m not saying that the actor who played him, Wayne David, just phoned it in. I’m sure he gave it his all, but despite that, I simply didn’t find his performance convincing.

In particular, I thought the character was at his worst when he was with Chantelle. The couple had almost no chemistry together, and the blame for that lies entirely with William. Chantelle seemed like a genuinely loving partner, and I could tell that she really cared for her boyfriend.

In contrast, if I didn’t know any better, I might’ve thought William was just a playboy trying to score another notch on his bedpost. Even when he’s supposed to be showing warmth and affection, he comes across as emotionally distant and even a bit uncaring. I just never felt the love on his part like I did on Chantelle’s, so on top of not buying into the character in general, I had an especially hard time believing his relationship with his girlfriend.

And that one-two punch is fatal for Wolf Garden. It makes the foundation of this entire movie shaky at best, so nothing that builds on that foundation has any chance of working out. To take just one example, since I had no emotional connection with the main character or with his situation, I was never able to care what happened to him, and that sapped the film’s horror of any impact it might’ve otherwise had.

But if I’m being honest, I have to say that even if I did care about William, the horror in this movie probably would’ve fallen pretty flat anyway. It’s mainly just darkness, more or less random imagery, and overdone spooky-sounding music, so there’s not much here that would’ve affected me even if I liked the rest of the film.

All that being said, I do have to acknowledge that Wolf Garden isn’t entirely bad. At about the one-hour mark, it gives us a really cool werewolf scene, and that scene made me sit up and move a bit closer to the edge of my seat. Granted, it’s very brief, and it doesn’t reinvent the lycanthropic wheel, but it executes a couple of time-honored werewolf tropes pretty well.

It’s fairly creepy, and it made me think the film was finally going to cash in on its monstrous potential. But unfortunately, after this short moment is over, Wolf Garden goes back to its M.O. of a weak main character and ineffective horror. In particular, the last scene of the movie is almost maddeningly frustrating. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say that it ends somewhat abruptly, right when it’s about to get to the good part.

I understand why writer/director Wayne David decided to stop the film there, as that was the end of the story he wanted to tell, but I still would’ve liked to have seen more. In fact, it almost feels like this movie should’ve started where it ended and just used William and Chantelle’s ordeal as backstory.

But it didn’t, so all we can do is judge Wolf Garden for what it actually is, not for what it could’ve (or even should’ve) been. And when we do that, I’m sad to say that I wouldn’t recommend this film. The unconvincing main character and ineffective scares just bring the whole thing down way too much, so if you’re looking for some good new horror to watch, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Wolf Garden hits VOD on February 28.