The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973) is an interesting collection piece for fans of horror film. It marks the end of Universal’s long-standing tradition of double-billing B-horror films from the 1930’s onward. That being said, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf and its companion film Sssssss (1973) are the physical evidence of the end of an era. This particular release drops the double- billing tradition, which is rather confusing to me, simply because the Universal Studios distributing system’s historical relevance is worth more to me than the actual film. Outside of the context that I have provided, this film doesn’t have many interesting qualities.

Recently divorced father Robert Bridgestone takes his son, Richie, to his secluded summer cabin. While walking through the woods one night, the two are attacked by a werewolf. After a struggle, Robert is able to throw the creature off the cliff, but not before he was bitten. Now Robert must cope with this ailment in addition to the responsibilities of being a single father. The film also outlines Richie’s complex position during the ordeal. Richie tries to tell his dad about the ailment, but his dad thinks Richie has an overactive imagination. Richie doesn’t want to tell the police, for fear they may harm his caretaker.

When I think of the Bible, I don’t think of northern Ontario. But there is an appetite for Christian-themed movies, and Canada is one of the most cost-effective places to produce movies. They have studios and sets up there, so it isn’t the worst idea in the world to go there to make any movie, even movies that take place in a very arid, hot, and dusty place. I have reviewed a group of Biblical films that Ted Turner produced for the TNT Network in the 1990’s. They were fairly well made, and, yes, they were made pretty close to the original locations. This new group of Biblical films is not quite up to those standards. I am reviewing The Apostle Peter: Redemption, but the same company has also produced Joseph and Mary, so we can probably expect more.Peter The Redemption follows the story of Peter (John Rhys-Davies, The Lord of the Rings I, II and III, Raiders of the Lost Ark) when he is lying in a Roman prison at the end of his life. He is still plagued by guilt for how he acted when Jesus was taken to the cross to die. The Roman Empire is ruled by the viscious and insane emperor Nero (Stephen Baldwin, The Usual Suspect, Bio-Dome). Two people, Susanna (Brittany Bristow) and Martinian (Steve Byers, The Man in the High Castle) find themselves shuttling back and forth from the court of Nero to the dudgeon of Peter. Susanna is a court servant of the empress Poppaea (Bobbie Phillips, Showgirls, Murder One). I should mention that Bobbie Phillips is playing probably the most complicated character in this film. At times she is sweet and understanding, but she also enables her husband’s numerous infidelities. Eventually she is downright despicable, which probably makes it OK that she was one of the fully nude showgirls from infamous Hollywood debacle, Showgirls. Martinian is a hardworking and honest Roman soldier who slowly falls in loves with Susanna and becomes a follower of Jesus.

I should stop now and say that this not a very good movie. I say that because most of us have a reasonable standard for what we can accept. We already know the standards have been lowered by making a Biblical movie in northern Canada. The acting is OK and mostly professional. I want to single out one person who stands out for chewing up the scenery. That would be Stephen Baldwin (one of the famous Baldwin brothers) who has been good in movies as long as he plays a mouth-breathing thug or near moronic goofball. In this case he plays a famously ruthless monster who killed somewhere between 100,000 and 1,500,000 people during his reign depending how you interpret history. That was a very healthy number back in those days. Baldwin is very central to this story and plays the part like a mafia mob boss. He looks like a bad hairdresser. The reason I say this is that it is a good example of how details of a production can accumulate and make a movie a disaster. The story also is somewhat unfocused and the production values marginal. So overall, I have to give this a low rating even though everyone involved probably had good intentions.

I fear our acceptance of A Haunted House has opened a door that we may never be able to close, as it would cause the disaster that is Meet the Blacks to be born. Parody films have the potential to be extraordinarily funny or incredibly bad. Can you guess what side of the scale this film falls on? Whether it be through overacting or jokes that attempted to play on every stereotype known to man, Meet the Blacks never really manages to get off the ground and make me laugh, which is equally disappointing given the sheer talent pool of comedians in the film: Mike Epps, Charlie Murphy, DeRay Davis, Lavell Crawford, Michael Blackson, Lil Duval, Paul Mooney, and the list goes on. As I said, this was a clear waste of talent.

A clear ripoff of a film which features the allowance of any crime for a predetermined period of time, the overall storyline involves Carl Black (Epps), a father with an on-the-nose name that moves his family out of the south side of Chicago after landing a lucrative contract for his wiring business, or at least that’s what his family believes. In reality, Carl stole the nest egg of a recently incarcerated drug dealer.