Late one night a man takes a wrong turn and ends up running out of gas. As he begins to walk toward town he hears a noise in the woods. Hearing the sounds of an animal growling he races back to his car and locks himself in. The animal tears apart the roof on his convertible and kills the man, ripping him to shreds.
The next day sheriff Vernon Bell (Phillip Carey) contacts his friend John Wetherby (Peter Graves). John is a writer and former hunter. Bell asks him to see if he can determine what type of animal killed the man. The bloodhounds used to track the animal lose the scent. After looking at the tracks John is confused. It appears that, at first blush, the tracks look like those of a wolf. The animal first ran on all fours, then stood up and walked on two. Then the tracks totally disappeared, as if someone erased them.
When another man is torn to shreds walking on a lonely road at night, people start to get edgy. John visits his friend Byron Douglas (Clint Walker). Byron is a big game hunter that loves to challenge himself out in the elements. He’s also a little ominous. At one time Byron had been bitten by a wolf. Byron is a bit of a recluse with few friends. His main company is his hired hand Grant (Don Megowan), who is almost as strange as Byron. John asks Byron to help him hunt for the animal. Byron refuses.
The town’s people start talking about werewolves. John’s girlfriend Sandy Miller (Jo Ann Pflug) doesn’t like Byron and thinks that he is involved in the killings in some way. I don’t blame her in that respect. Byron practically puts himself out as suspect number one.
Sandy and John run into Byron at dinner. Sandy makes it known that she doesn’t like Byron. Not the smartest idea. Later that night Sandy is attacked at her home. She calls for help and locks herself in her bedroom. The police manage to get to her before the animal can claw its way through her bedroom door but she is terrified. Now more than ever she thinks Byron is in the middle of whatever is happening.
After repeated refusals to help, Byron finally agrees to assist John in killing the animal. Sandy is not happy about this turnabout. John doesn’t believe the werewolf stories or that Byron is a killer. John finds himself out in the woods, late at night, with Byron, hunting an unknown animal.
“Scream of the Wolf” was released in 1974 and was produced and directed by Dan Curtis. It is a made for TV horror movie based on a story called “The Hunter” by David Chase.
This ended up being a really good movie even though it was made for TV and didn’t have a lot of gore or even much in the way of blood in it. It was written by Richard Matheson who, as I found out, has written a lot of really cool stuff. He wrote “Stir of Echoes” 1999, “Somewhere in Time” 1980, “Duel” 1971, “A Comedy of Terrors” 1963, “Master of the World” 1961, “The Incredible Shrinking Man” 1957 and many others, as well as many episodes of different television series including "The Twilight Zone", "Amazing Stories", "The Martian Chronicles", "Night Gallery" and "Star Trek". Well, no wonder I liked it.
With good writing and great acting from some veteran actors, the movie kept me watching to the very end. Not to mention the fact the Dan Curtis as producer and director is no slouch either when it comes to movies. He directed “Burnt Offerings” 1976, “The Night Strangler” 1973, “Night of Dark Shadows” 1971 and “House of Dark Shadows” 1970.
The main questions in “Scream of the Wolf” are; Is there really a werewolf on the loose? If so, is it creepy Byron or someone else? If it isn’t a werewolf, what is it? For an ABC movie of the week, it’s got some chops associated with it. Granted it isn’t the best werewolf movie ever. But it is highly entertaining and fun to watch.