Wolf Lake Promo Poster

I had never heard of the supernatural television series “Wolf Lake” until a couple of months ago when Chiller was running a day long marathon of its solitary season. When I first saw the commercials, I thought it was actually a movie because it has some relatively big name stars in it such as Lou Diamond Phillips, Tim Matheson and Sharon Lawrence. Subsequently, I also automatically assumed that since I had never heard of it, and the fact that it was on “Chiller” and not on network TV, meant it was probably a pretty crappy movie. However, when I started watching, I realized I could not have been more wrong.

"John Kanin" and "Ruby"

“Wolf Lake” is a combination mystery/suspense/angst-y love story/werewolf thriller set in a mysterious town in the Pacific Northwest, where a large number of the inhabitants (if not all of them) are human/wolf shape-shifters. It premiered on Sept. 19,2001 and ran for a total of 9 episodes, 5 on CBS and the last 4 on UPN. Lou Diamond Phillips played John Kanin, a Seattle police officer whose girlfriend Ruby is kidnapped on the night he proposes to her. His efforts to find her lead him to the town of Wolf Lake, where he’s immediately suspicious of the town’s strange inhabitants. He begins investigating how Ruby is tied to this town and he never quite has the whole picture revealed to him. In the meantime, the wolf families that control the town have their own underlying drama going on in regards to leadership, power, sex, and the ethics involved with living as humans who possess the power to become werewolves.

Mysterious "Wolf Lake"

While this description may sound like it has all the makings of a supernatural soap opera, “Wolf Lake” was much more than that. For anyone interested in wolves and werewolf mythology, “Wolf Lake” will engage you in a fascinating depiction of the struggle between the instinctual wolf pack mentality and the individual desires of the human being. It’s entirely possible that I’m reading too much into the show, but I found it ironic that when wolves are known to be intensely loyal to the pack and mate for life, the human-wolves in “Wolf Lake” are preoccupied with various degrees of gaining power using sex, murder and deception, to manipulate their fellow wolves. Adding to the mystery, we never really know exactly, whether or not everyone in the town is a werewolf, including John Kanin, who would actually be learning that fact along with the viewers if it were true.

The worst part is, that we NEVER truly find out the all answers because the show was cancelled after only 9 episodes! As usual, it seems that the major networks don’t give the more obscure “supernatural” shows a chance…if they aren’t in the lead right out of the gate, they get axed, which doesn’t seem fair, considering it usually takes a couple of episodes before a viewer can decide if they are really into a show or not. This show underwent a huge transformation from the original pilot in order to make it more dramatic and interesting to a wider audience. The original pilot was actually scrapped and the focus re-written, a move that was questioned, but then welcomed by the actors and creators behind the show, so you would think that it would have had more of a chance to make it past the initial season “chopping block”.

The cast of "Wolf Lake"

I believe the show’s lack of popularity was due to a couple of unfortunate factors, neither of which have anything to do with the quality of the show. First, the title, “Wolf Lake” comes off as a bit too general and “soap-opera-ish” which could immediately turn some people off who may have gotten the wrong impression of what the show was about (think “Melrose Place” or “The Hills”). I think if the title was more focused on some aspect of the werewolf persona, like “Cunning Instinct” or simply “Alpha Male” it could have been more easily identified as a supernatural series. Second, maybe it was simply an awesome show that was “before its time”. The public’s current obsession with vampire mythology has begun to spread into the realm of the werewolf. Teens who favor Jacob in the “Twilight” series would have become loyal viewers of “Wolf Lake” because there is an active teen-werewolf-angst subplot that would satisfy their craving for “werewolf romance”. I’ve also noticed that there are several werewolf movies and TV shows currently in the works to satisfy those who have become bored with the surplus of vampire shows that have flooded the entertainment industry. This seems like it would have been the absolute most perfect timing for a show like “Wolf Lake” to become a runaway hit. Unfortunately, werewolves were not a trending entertainment fad 8 years ago when it was released on network television.

Lou Diamond Phillips and Graham Greene

With a high caliber of talent in acting and writing, “Wolf Lake” proved itself to critics and also to the viewers that took a chance and tuned in, that it was a captivating series. With outstanding acting especially from the lead, Lou Diamond Phillips, and an engrossing storyline, there was no reason that this series should have failed. I haven’t heard any talk of possibly bringing it back but wouldn’t it be nice for the fans to have at least a TV movie to tie the MANY loose ends together, especially now that the series has been running sporadically on Chiller? While searching the internet I did find a currently active petition to bring the show back at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/Bring-Back-WOLFLAKE that has over 500 signatures and still growing. If you haven’t had a chance yet to check out “Wolf Lake” the next marathon showing will be this coming Sunday, Sept 13th on Chiller. Regardless of whether or not anything happens with “Wolf Lake” in the future, make sure you tune in and check in out. It definitely will not disappoint fans of the supernatural genre and the actors and writers of this show deserve a little more widespread awareness of the amazing quality of this show.

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus

As I sat down to watch “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus”, I was extremely stoked to be watching yet another “so bad it’s good” SyFy Channel movie. To be clear, I was fully aware, that I was not sitting down to watch a movie of the same caliber as “Jaws”, or even “Jaws 2”, for that matter.

I consider SyFy movies to be in a sort of “pseudo-movie” genre, that is, a movie so cheesy, that even the actors seem to play along  by overacting or revealing a telltale smirk now and then, and that is what makes these movies so enjoyable. That being said, it’s also entirely possible for the movie makers to miss the mark and take the cheesiness a little too far.  This results in a truly horrible movie that is neither entertaining, nor tolerable for longer than 5 minutes of viewing. “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus” ended up walking a very thin line, slightly teetering into the “unwatchable” category while also keeping me entertained enough that I didn’t feel a need to summon up the energy to change the channel.

 As far as the movie’s plot, the title is pretty much self-explanatory. A prehistoric “mega shark” and “giant octopus” are accidentally unfrozen from a giant ice block near Alaska and they start terrorizing the world (as most giant prehistoric creatures do). Now, this sounds like it has all the makings of a great “monster battle” movie, along the lines of Godzilla vs Mothra. Ironically though, the scenes where we see these monsters actually trying to destroy something (or each other), are extremely scarce, and unfortunately they are also some of the worst quality scenes in the movie as far as special effects go.

Helicopter exploding on impact with giant tentacle

The destruction scenes involving the shark and octopus had great potential but look like they were slapped together in an hour on an outdated version of Photoshop. Seriously, if orchestrated correctly, a giant shark  leaping out of the water to grab a 747 out of the sky could be pure genius! With a little more time and talent spent on CGI, this outrageous scene could have crossed the line from completely ridiculous to freaking awesome! Unfortunately, that scene ended up looking like a blurry photo of a shark superimposed on stock footage of a plane that was flipped back and forth to simulate movement along with some random flames dropped in via computer. Explosions in the movie were just as bad…every vehicle was “hyper-explosive” as seen when one swipe of a Giant Octopus tentacle  makes a helicopter explode instantly in a fiery ball like it was full of rigged dynamite. Evidently there was a special on fireworks that ended up fitting the budget better than a few talented CGI artists.

Debbie, aka "Deborah", Gibson

The movie spends extremely too much time focused on dragged out discussions between Deborah Gibson, as the oceanologist  Emma MacNeal, and the same few characters, namely her ex-professor, an Asian scientist and Lorenzo Lamas cast as a “random head of some unnamed government department”. I know, you’re thinking what I was when I first saw ads for the movie…Deborah Gibson and Lorenzo Lamas? Seriously? They’re not even “SyFy” movie regulars!…and Debbie Gibson is a singer for God’s sake! When I sat down to watch the movie however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Ms. Gibson actually has real acting talent. She was so relaxed and natural in her role that I could have sworn she’d been in at least 10 other “Made for SyFy” movies before this one. I would even go so far as to say she was the best actor in this whole movie.  Seriously, someone needs to get her a role on “Eureka” or something.

Lorenzo Lamas stuck in the early 90's

Lorenzo Lamas, on the other hand – completely nauseating. Dude STILL has his hair greased back and in a pony tail and is STILL wearing a tight black shirt and black pants, making him look like a sleazy guy stuck in the early 90’s hanging at the club to hit on 21-year-olds. His acting in this movie was so lifeless, even some attempt at overacting would have been more tolerable. It was like he was there to recite random lines off a script with the sole purpose of attempting to seduce Debbie Gibson with his cheesy cologne-reeking smile.

Pic of "Bobby Sixkiller" from the early 90's with Lorenzo who has the same cheesy hairstyle as in the movie!

I don’t know if I watched too many episodes of “Renegade” in the early 90’s but I seriously think Lorenzo Lamas just can’t appear tough without “Bobby SixKiller” (Branscombe Richmond) at his side. It’s like he’s half a man without his trusty Indian sidekick. They could have easily added a whole new dimension to the movie by writing in his character with some “Native American Mega Shark legend” subplot that explained the mystical background of the creatures. That would have been the greatest “Renegade” reunion ever! Sadly however,  the biggest contribution Lorenzo Lamas made to this movie was his referral to the giant shark as “Sharkzilla”…which is actually a truly classic moment in the film.

Mega Shark "biting" the apparently tasty Golden Gate Bridge

Overall, “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus” merits 3 out of  5 wedges on the “cheese scale”. To attain a more respectable level of “cheese-dom” there should have been an attempt to make the “unreal” special effects appear more real, no matter how ridiculous they were. We know a giant prehistoric shark is not going to bite the Golden Gate bridge in half, but wouldn’t it be cool to see what it would look like (realistically) if it did? And they could have really recast Lorenzo Lamas with more of a SyFy movie stand-by like Lou Diamond Phillips. He actually seems to care more about his role than whether or not his ponytail has enough gel in it. Debbie Gibson is what carried the movie. She showed that she has real acting talent, even in a cheesy SyFy movie, which even for the most seasoned actors is not a feat to easily accomplish.