Alma and the Wolf Movie Review – Ethan Embry and Li Jun Li Get Weird in This Fever Dream Horror

Michael Patrick Jann’s Alma and the Wolf will divide critics and viewers, because it’s a tough film to pinpoint. Is it horror? Is it a psychological thriller? Is it a comedy? Actually, it’s all of that and then some. Here’s the catch, though: the movie will seem ridiculous in places until the final act when it all comes together in eye-widening fashion.

Alma and the Wolf doesn’t waste any time in setting up the story, as Deputy Ren Accord (Ethan Embry) picks up Alma (Li Jun Li) from the side of the road after she and her dog were involved in an animal attack. Not long after this, Ren’s life receives a shake-up after his son disappears one evening, and he fears that his boy is in the clutches of a mysterious wolf haunting the town of Spiral Creek.

Abby Miller’s script possesses a fever dream quality. As soon as the tension mounts to unimaginable heights, it gets hosed down by moments of levity and laughter. The film seesaws with the viewer’s emotion to the point in which you believe it’s a tonal mess and nothing makes sense. However, this is all intentional, powered by the actual unstable driving force of the story. While it’s nothing like it from a genre perspective, the way the tale unfolds is reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s Memento, or even Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill to a certain extent, as it forces everyone to retrace the narrative steps at the end of the film.

Sometimes, though, Alma and the Wolf becomes a little too goofy for its own good. It’s not even the wolf costume that looks like it’s pulled from a ’90s Goosebumps episode, but it’s the way in which the surreal moments are executed. It’s clear that Jann wants to elicit feelings of nervous humor in these scenes, but the filmmaker often veers too far into the pit of stomach-aching hilarity rather than applying restraint. Resultantly, a lot of these moments fall flat, even when the viewer revisits them after the big reveal.

Embry and Li don’t disappoint, though; instead, they dominate the proceedings. Ren and Alma are two characters radically altered from the first to last scene of the movie, leaving the audience questioning what’s real and isn’t about them. As performers, Embry and Li play the sleight-of-hand trick well, toying with the viewer’s confidence and creating conflicting emotions of who can be trusted.

Embry, in particular, produces one of the best layered performances of his career in Alma and the Wolf. While it’s all too easy for the general audience to remember him solely as the lovesick Preston Meyers pining after Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Amanda Beckett in Can’t Hardly Wait, he reminds everyone that he’s a talented actor with range. For Li, she’s coming off a major role in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, in which she plays Grace Chow, and she’s become well acquainted with the horror genre. Now, by adding the complex role of Alma to her portfolio, Li is on course to become one of the modern-day icons of the genre. She’s simply that good.

Alma and the Wolf won’t be for everyone. Be prepared to encounter people who will despise it because of the big creative swings (and misses). That being said, it’s an ambitious film that deserves plaudits for daring to be different. Love it, or hate it, you will talk about it.

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