User Reviews

I remember this to be the first werewolf film I ever rented (but not the first one I ever watched; I was already familiar with Oliver Reed, David Naughton and "Eddie Quist" at the time, not in particular with their names, of course, but more with the werewolf films they're attached to). Ripe enough to tell right from wrong, but not aged enough to tell the difference between a good or a bad movie. So, I remember enjoying LONE WOLF back then, but as years passed by I knew I had to re-visit it eventually and re-evaluate things. Found me an old VHS tape of it and re-watched it. And boy, is this one silly and downright bad low-budget production at moments. Horrible 80's hair-do's and clothing. Horrible 80's hard rock music (it features a pretty awful rock band in the film, trying to struggle their way to fame but they never go beyond playing in the same club over and over again). Very bad acting from most of the cast members. A cast that's supposed to by playing teenagers in high school but they all look much older. Lots of colorful, oh-so-typical 80's lighting. Retarded attempts at humor on rare occasions. And so on and so on...

However,... the film does have two more or less redeeming qualities. One is that the plot is constructed as a mystery. Granted, it's painfully easy to guess who the werewolf is, but it is somewhat entertaining to see how the filmmakers are desperately trying to set the viewer off on the wrong foot numerous times. Secondly, there's the werewolf. And, yes, the film features a brief transformation-scene. Hooray for that! It looks a bit clumsy, but they did the best with the little means they had, and we get the works (teeth growing, pointy ears appearing, face stretching, claws bursting through fingers, hair growing). Other than this scene, the werewolf is previously shown throughout the movie mainly in brief close-ups (the eyes, the mouth, the teeth, the claws,...) or silhouettes. Fair enough. It all looks a bit fake, of course, but still neat to look at. There's a bit of gore too, stuff like hearts ripped out, a face torn in half and a guy getting his head ripped off. The film even has a little twist in its tail (sort of a surprise shock ending) that I totally forgot should have been coming because I was so amused by the dumbness of the rest of the movie.

I can't really recommended LONE WOLF to anybody, but it is a fun bad werewolf flick. I'd put it right up there with other late 80's straight-faced shenanigans like MINDKILLER (1987) and THE BRAIN (1988).

The Colorado town of Fairview is plagued with a vicious string of wild dog attacks.The dogs are mutilating humans,especially around Fairview School.No one has actually seen these wild dogs, but there are also reports of a large wolf walking on its hind legs...Who is the werewolf? This is one of the many cheesy horror flicks from late 80's.Admittedly the make up effects and a few gore scenes are decent,so if you like rubbery transformation sequences you shall enjoy this crappy flick.The utterly terrible music is credited to the awful 'heavy metal' band called Tyxe.Overall,"Lone Wolf" sucks massively and is only recommended for non-discriminating fans of grade-Z horror trash.4 out of 10.

My review was written in August 1989 after watching the movie on Prism video cassette.

This made-for-video werewolf feature is moderately interesting but unfortunately adds nothing to the lore of the lycanthrope.

Shot in Denver, pic unfolds as a whodunit with mostly students as suspects when a rash of killings breaks out in a small town. Police are slow to pick up on the clues, such as sightings of wild dogs near the murder scene. Young computer hackers decide to investigate on their own, leading to a surprise revelation of the werewolf's identity.

Gore content increases as film goes on (first few attacks are presented tamely) and a fair amount of suspense is built up. However, the cast members are a bit old for their roles, though heroine Dyann Brown is a beauty. Gimmick of building evidence to make each principal potentially the killer is fun.

Tech credits are okay, including unspectacular werewolf effects.

Basically its a low budget, film The werewolf transformation is cool? Amazon video sure has low budget flicks a plenty. Give it a shot for the 80s hair metal fans !

Big hair big thrills shocking acting shocking plot

but quite entertaining... it's more of a background film but it was not bad... just not great eother

The Colorado town of Fairview is plagued with a rash of wild dog attacks. The dogs are mutilating humans, especially around Fairview School. No one has actually seen these wild dogs, but there are also reports of a large wolf walking on its hind legs. The entire mystery of "Lone Wolf" is: who is the werewolf? Is it brooding heavy metal singer Eddie (Jamie Newcomb)? Is it hot-to-trot Deirdre (Ann Douglas)? And what of Deirdre's pixie like friend, Colleen (Siren)? We mustn't forget blonde princess Julie (Dyann Brown), who was the last person to see one victim alive. Or maybe nerdy Joel (Kevin Hart), who takes a liking to Julie? Or someone else entirely, like the police force, or the school's instructors, or Eddie's extended family, or the local bar owner, or some parents, or the girl in the wheelchair, or the janitor, or...this film has more characters in it than an Italian opera but don't worry, everything will be cleared up at the school's conveniently scheduled winter costume ball.

I keep writing "school," instead of "high school." Therein lies the film's biggest problem. The school looks like a high school, complete with lockers and a gym, yet all the students are about thirty years old. The students go to a night club, drink, stay out, and still live with their parents or guardians. Sure, high school students do that, but how many high school students have five o'clock shadow? Deirdre looks old enough to be a teacher, not a student. This is a cheesy 1980's werewolf flick that overextends itself with too many characters and not enough story. It takes everyone else in the cast forever to figure out who the werewolf is, long after you have guessed correctly. The makeup and gore effects are above average, until the camera dwells too long on one rubbery transformation sequence. The script is a series of werewolf point-of-view attacks, while the cops go about not believing the "kids," who take it upon themselves to catch the monster. The heavy metal band's songs illustrate why the big hair hard rock days of the 1980's are now long gone. The acting is okay, but I get the feeling the actors were also kept in the dark as to their characters' ages. "Lone Wolf" is a valiant try at small film making. The budget and script lack, the talent is lost, and it lumbers along. Too bad things weren't trimmed a bit, and the energy was heightened. This could have been another "An American Werewolf in London" or "The Howling," but instead, it is no better than any of those better film's sequels. Too bad.

A small town in Colorado is plagued by grisly attacks involving a pack of wild dogs or some other animal, but they curiously only occur during the full moon. The brooding lead singer of a local rock band (Jamie Newcomb) teams-up with some fellow college students to resolve the problem.

"Lone Wolf" (1988) was made on a direct-to-video budget with no-name actors and a half-serious, half-hammy tone, yet it's entertaining as comic book horror in the mold of a fun slasher, but possibly featuring a wolf-like creature. You can tell the cast had a good time. It's superior to the contemporaneous "Night Shadow" and I'd watch it any day over "Silver Bullet."

What's interesting is that most of the students appear to be around 30. Sure, Colleen looks like she could be 18-21, but Julie and, especially, Deirdre and Eddie look past 30. The creators obviously kept the nature of the school ambiguous because of this factor, just calling it "Fairview School." I guess it's supposed to be a community college, yet all the school scenes were obviously shot at a high school (cited below). Hey, they had to shoot where they could afford.

There are four songs on the soundtrack by the hair metal band Tyxe, all written by Greg Leslie: "Raised On Rock & Roll," "Misunderstood," "Let It Rock" and "Rock You All Night." These songs are evidently from their 1988 demo, but further information on the group is pretty much nonexistent. Their style is akin to bands like Dokken, Ratt and Warrant.

The movie runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot in the greater Denver area, including Adams City High School and Jefferson County.

GRADE: B-

The other's reviewer completely failed to acknowledge how entertaining this movie really is. If you enjoy bad horror movies at all, you will certainly be pleased. Foremost, it is not boring in the least... the main weakness of most films of it's caliber. And it is quite funny; both intentionally and otherwise. I have a special place in my heart for horror films shot on video, and this is probably the best of that category. The cinematography is very similar to that of most PBS instructional programming. I just love it, and have introduced it to many others who agree. The filmmakers should be commended for making such a great movie on such a low budget. And a special note to the other reviewer; mullets and jokes about them are no longer funny (and were long dead when you wrote your review). Get over it.

Yes, this movie is objectively done badly, but it's that bad done fun, the characters are nice, the gore effects are cool and the werewolf definitely badass, plus there's a nice hard rock soundtrack. I prefer a small film like this to modern films of today.

We've seen the story a thousand times before, quiet community, new kid in town, and then...squirrels start disappearing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure things out, Werewolf. What follows is a celluloid skidmark that would make J. Piquer Simon wince and scurry into the night mewling. I've seen bad porn movies...a lot. And what's more, most of them were better acted than this. Jiminy, even the casual walking shots were more forced than a Brian Dennehy sex scene. I guess you save money if instead of actors you just use some people you met in a bar after last call. Our heroes look a little long in the tooth to be highschool...hell, they look too old to have kids in highschool. The ages would be more distracting if the acting wasn't so heinous. It really belies description. All I can say is I long for the restraint of a young William Shatner. The more I think about it, I believe this movie was shot in Bizarro world, where such acting would be considered good actually. And when I say Bizarro world, I of course mean Canada. Mullets abound in this wretched little film. Be forwarned. Peace.