The final film directed by Nathan Juran, 1973's The Boy Who Cried Werewolf tells the story of a boy named Richie Bridgestone (Scott Sealy), the victim of a broken home, his parents, Robert (Kerwin Matthews) and Sandy (Elaine Devry) having divorced some time ago. His story becomes more interesting when he heads out with his dad for a weekend away at a cabin up in the mountains. Things are going well enough for the two until they head out for a night time hike only to be attacked undercover of the darkness by… something. They manage to fight the thing off, sending it tumbling down a hill where it's killed after falling into a sharp wooden fence. Richie swears up and down it was a werewolf, and this thing bit his father before they managed to kill it off. That's not good.

The cops are called and the Sheriff (Robert J. Wilke), after finding the very human corpse of their assailant, tells the father and son duo that it was a drifter who attacked them, nothing more. Just a random crazy person. Richie though, he's not so sure that the cop is right. He knows what he saw that night. But of course, nobody believes him. Who would? Eventually Richie winds up seeing a shrink (George Gaines) for help coping with the divorce, and the subject of the attack comes up. The doctor's suggestion? That he and his father head back to the cabin, so that Richie can overcome his fears by confronting them head on. And so they do that, just in time for the next full moon… Richie did try to warn everyone after all.

A briskly paced feature, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf has languished in obscurity for years now. The movie turns out to be a lot of fun, thanks primarily to some great ‘old fashioned' style transformation effects, meaning that when Robert transforms it happens in a style much closer to the old Universal horror films than films that would follow in this picture's wake (think The Howling or An American Werewolf In London for example). While these effects might not be as convincing as later films, they do not lack in nostalgic charm and are pretty cool to see, demonstrating a style and creativity that harkens back to horror films made decades before. At the same time, it has a very seventies feel to it thanks to the fashions and the cars and the set dressings all on display throughout the picture.

The performances are decent. Scott Sealy is likeable enough to work as the central character. He plays his part as a smart kid, maybe a little confused in the eyes of the adults that he interacts with, all of whom are quick to blame his issues on the divorce. There's a bit more drama to his part than you'd maybe expect but he handles it well. Elaine Drevy is decent enough as the mother and Kerwin Matthews just as much fun as the dad, particularly in the later part of the movie when things start to… change for his character. And hey, check out George Gaines from Punky Brewster as the doctor in charge of Richie's therapy! Throw in instantly recognizable character actor Robert J. Wilke as the top cop and you wind up with a pretty interesting cast.

This one seems like it should be a better known picture than it is. As the movie starts out, yeah, fine, it's a little predictable and maybe a little too reliant on clichés but as the story progresses, things go in some decidedly unexpected directions. The film is nicely shot and it makes great use of some outdoor locations to give what was clearly a film made on a modest budget a bigger, more epic feel. The werewolf scenes are pretty great and even, at times, fairly intense and the film benefits from a great score too. Throw in some surprisingly effective comic relief from time to time and this turns out to be a really entertaining and well-made time at the movies!

Video:

The AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer for The Boy Who Cried Werewolf is framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and it looks very nice. The image is clean and stable and it shows nice detail and good texture as well. There's very little print damage here to note and skin tones look nice and natural. Black levels are solid and color reproduction also looks quite good.