With a title like “Alma and the Wolf” (2025), it sounds as if the titular character would be the protagonist. The main character is Ren Accord (Ethan Embry), a former high school baseball star turned deputy in Spiral Creek, Oregon, the town that he grew up in. On Ren’s way to see his son, Jack (Lukas Jann, the director’s son who bears a striking resemblance to Timothee Chalamet), get a chance to have the life that he didn’t, he crosses paths with Alma (Li Jun Li), the hot girl from high school who has a crazy story about what happened to her dog, Tigger. When his son goes missing, he no longer thinks that the story is nothing but the ravings of an alcoholic struggling to maintain sobriety. Director Michael Patrick Jann and writer Abby Miller’s horror mystery film is an oft-time laugh-out-loud puzzle that you will want to solve.
Even though Ren’s behavior screams anything but employee of the month, he somehow stays in the good graces of his zen boss, Captain Stanton (Kevin Allison), his rival for a promotion and buddy/coworker, Murphy (Jeremie Harris), and Pam (Alexandra Doke), the office secretary. He is estranged from his wife, Connie (Dana Millican), who is in a serious relationship with Larry (actor not listed on IMDb), but considering Ren’s tendency to get blitzed out of his mind drunk, they are cordial when the happy couple could attempt to deny visitation over concern for Jack’s safety. With Alma suddenly interested in Ren, Jack leverages his dad’s first date since the separation to continue evading Ren’s inquiries about what the college baseball scout said. The entire world seems to be rooting for Ren except for Betty (Beth Malone), another former high school acquaintance, who prefers to trade barbs with Ren and anyone in his orbit. It is a quaint, quirky close-knit town that would be ideal if it was not for the wildlife intrusion, an increasing illness which started with overall-loving Ashley (Mather Zickel) foaming at the mouth and puking.
If it was not for this darn wolf, life would be a dream for Ren. It is impossible not to think of the “Twilight” franchise when a film is shot in Oregon with the trees like overgrown thorns and the constant layer of mist and rain. This wolf is no Jacob though, and at times, he has backup dancers. “Alma and the Wolf” is not ripping off movies to flesh out its narrative. There is a reason why the film references movies like “The Shining” (1980), “Jacob’s Ladder” (1990), “It” (2017), “Midsommar” (2019) and “Lamb” (2021). How do you kill the wolf when it is a protected species, but the wolf is killing innocents? By the end of the movie, everything gets tied up without painfully spelling it out so that moviegoers will not feel manipulated or spoken down to. Avid moviegoers may guess in the first act what happened even though subsequent events may throw you off its scent. Unlike other movies, if you do figure it out in record timing, it is still a riveting character study.
Ren is going to be a relatable character for many in the audience, which will make “Alma and the Wolf” hit harder than expected. Even though he has a better life than his actions deserve, he wonders when he took a left turn as everyone does from time to time. One minute, life is nothing but potential then the next, you are stuck with all the opportunities visible in the rear-view mirror, and nothing but monotony ahead. For Ren, all his hopes are pinned on Jack having the life that he did not, especially since Jack has the physical acumen to make it happen. Ren does not care that everyone revolves around him. He is fixated on leaving the town. It is a baffling desperation, especially considering if he ever left the town, he would have zero relationships.
That kind of entitlement to the promotion, to the hot girlfriend, the perfect, loving son who wants to spend time with him, to his boss’ faith in his word, etc. explains why his marriage may have broken up, and his son is alternating between grey rocking and fawning. Study after study details the male loneliness epidemic, how women are outpacing men when they just have less of a foot on their neck, not equality, and that the angry Presidon’t supporter is convinced that people of color and women oversee everything even when all their political allies dominate every branch of government. Ren is the most affable version of this phenomenon. He believes that he deserves greatness, kindness and deference even when he is a fall-down drunk who does not have much going for him when he is sober except that he has managed to stay reasonably good looking.
“Alma and the Wolf” is an expressionist horror film, which creates supernatural scenarios that act as metaphors for real life fear—what horror films don’t, but in this case, the overt mythology within the movie’s universe is not the point or solution. Most expressionist horror films can feel a bit unsatisfying at the end if you are just expecting the standard horror movie mythology such as “It Comes at Night” (2017), “Relic” (2020), “Master” (2022), “Rounding” (2022), and “The Haunting of Hollywood” (2024). The denouement explanation may put this movie out of the running for this category since the vague, unfinished, ambiguous story is supposed to put the viewer in the protagonist’s shoes, but it should still belong because that feeling never dissipates even with the explanation. It is the kind of movie that will benefit from having swift fingers hovered over the remote control so you can pause, rewind, play via slo mo to fully catch the montages that include events from different times in the movie. Editor Todd Sandler assembles the footage in a way that feels like subliminal messages and may remind some of “I Saw the TV Glow” (2024) except with faster pacing and without the thin patina of grief hovering over the story. The oneiric logic of this film will make moviegoers more open when the mythology feels a bit like a patchwork, not a cohesive story. It is a feature, not a flaw.
“Alma and the Wolf” is also a hilarious film with well-written dialogue. Alma feels dissonant from how she appears almost as if she is one of Ren’s pals, not a possible love interest. Betty’s ball busting perfectly punctuates the town’s dynamic of people stuck in arrested development. The entire Sheriff’s office blatantly involved in Ren’s love life shows the potential for that concept to develop into a television series if the overall narrative was not wrapped up. Captain Stanton steals every scene and is worth the price of admission.
If you enjoy folk horror, especially when an in-over-his-head law enforcement official must confront the supernatural, a shapeshifting wolf menacing a town, murdering innocent locals and infecting the rest, then you will enjoy “Alma and the Wolf.” This movie will probably benefit from repeat viewings and could become a cult classic.
