RAISED BY WOLVES (2014)

Raised By Wolves (2014)
Directed by: Mitchell Altieri
Written by: Cory Knauf, Mitchell Altieri, Phil Flores
Starring: Evan Crooks, Jenna Haze, Monty Geer

RAISED BY WOLVES (2014)
Directed by Mitchell Altieri

A group of skateboarders and their girlfriends visit an abandoned ranch with a huge, unused drained pool at the back in which they plan to skate. The only problem is that the ranch once belonged to Ernest Plainsong, a cult leader who persuaded his teenage followers to kill others because they were supposedly “demons”, before the teens became paranoid and killed each other. Dismissing the legend of Plainsong as an urban myth or a tall tale to scare people away, the teens roam the land and skate obliviously, but upon entering the abandoned, dilapidated ranch, they discover that maybe the story is true after all…

RAISED BY WOLVES is a found footage movie that is no doubt inspired by Charles Manson and the Manson family murders that occurred during the 1960’s albeit with a few creative changes. In present day, we follow a group of skateboading teens who are looking for the ultimate ride which leads them the ranch with its bloodthirsty history. Recording the entire adventure on his camera is Mikey (Evan Crooks), who plans to use the footage to make a skateboarding film or documentary, but what he sees on camera is enough to make him question their activities at Plainsong’s ranch.

The performances in this movie are pretty decent with the actors not only convincing as their roles as troublesome teens, but also as efficent skateboarders. These guys can truly skate, which is no mean feat! Just watching the guys do their thing is impressive, and sets the film up for its scarier plotline, which lies inside the ranch.

The location in which RAISED BY WOLVES is shot is barren and really brings the fear and isolation the teens feel when everything goes to pot. The attention to detail is pretty noticeable too, with the ranch littered with grungy sleeping bags and walls splattered with symbols and text, which really provide the turning point of the movie and disturbs the teens who’d dismissed the notion of the Plainsong murders as urban legend.

As far as indie horrors go, RAISED BY WOLVES is a neat little survival flick, but one thing that majorly lets it down is the camera. This isn’t just shaky cam, it’s spinning cam too and is so severe that it gave me motion sickness in the first 5 minutes of watching it. I managed to hold out for the 90 minutes run time but only just, and I felt so sick during and afterwards. So if you’re a sufferer of motion sickness, I’d advise not to watch this unless seabands or ginger work for you. This is really a shame, as more stability of the camera would have improved viewing. Despite the filmmakers efforts to create the movie as realistic and authentic possible, I feel they may have alienated a potential audience, although not purposely.

Even though the storyline is a combination of two plots we’ve seen before, RAISED BY WOLVES has managed to put a creative spin on these ideas and produce something fun and refreshing that the audience can enjoy.

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