Nerdly » ‘Bae Wolf’ Review

31st Jan2022

‘Bae Wolf’ Review

by Alain Elliott

Stars: Rachel Petsiavas, Aaron Blomberg, Josh Kern, Morgan Shaley Renew, Jennifer Hill | Written by David Axe, Darien Cavanaugh | Directed by David Axe

They had me at the name! It doesn’t take too much to interest me to be honest when it comes to a film. Get a good title or good artwork for a poster or cover and I’ll give it a watch. Luckily for Bae Wolf, I liked the name and it had a cool poster, so I was there for it!

A twist, well a whole new take on the classic Beowulf story, Bae Wolf is set in the year 500AD (or thereabouts) where a monster is terrorizing the drunken revellers of Heorot. So a fearless princess goes in search of a hero to save her people. But that hero guards a secret more dangerous than the monster.

I think what I liked most about Bae Wolf is that it has a very distinct style that it keeps throughout. Despite the era it is set in, as it is a fantasy comedy, the filmmakers can get away with giving it this modern style. The make-up and costumes all look fantastic and make the movie stand out from anything else that is even remotely similar – but to be honest, this is a pretty unique movie. You would think that all this wouldn’t quite work for a movie that is entirely set in woodland but I loved the location that is used and how it is used. Think of it as a trendier Game of Thrones.

Unfortunately, what didn’t work for me was the comedy. Maybe it was the delivery from the inexperienced cast because I think some of the lines could have been funny with the right comic timing, but overall I just didn’t find the movie funny. This thankfully doesn’t make it a bad movie, there’s more to it than one-liners and jokes, while I’m sure other viewers will laugh much more. But the comedy was the least appealing part of Bae Wolf for me.

When it tries to go down a more serious route (which was only occasionally), it at least gave the cast something to really throw themselves into. These scenes aren’t perfect and maybe feel a bit out of place at times but I still much preferred them.

At heart, this is a low budget B-movie and therefore it doesn’t have some entertaining gore scenes. That low budget doesn’t matter here because they’re a lot of fun and in keeping with the spirit of the movie. As does the dragon scene at the end of the movie that could be awful in the wrong hands but was the funniest part here. It also has some fun with gender roles in the story, helping with the originality that flows through it.

At less than ninety minutes, time flies by and I love originality in all forms. Fans of low budget, homemade-style indie films will get a kick out of this film from David Axe and I will be checking out his other work.