Ethan Embry is known best for his roles in the 90s cult film Empire Records and teen comedy Can't Hardly Wait. However, he's not a total stranger to horror, starring in the underrated Devil's Candy from 2015. That film, in which Embry plays an artist who slowly loses his mind after moving into a rural home, feels like a template for his lead role in Alma and the Wolf. Despite its flaws, Alma and the Wolf has some strong performances and its share of unsettling sequences.
Embry stars as police officer Ren Accord, who's reeling from a split with his wife. To cope, he turns to the bottle. Ren's situation worsens when he discovers an alcoholic woman named Alma (Li Jun Li) wandering on the side of the road, covered in blood, carrying her dead dog. At the police station, she informs Ren that she encountered a circle of goats and a wolf that murdered her beloved pooch. Yet, it's hard to tell if she's admitting the truth, or if something else happened before Ren found her. Because of their demons and addictions, both of these characters are terribly unreliable.
Alma and Ren knew each other since high school, and she makes him promise that he'll kill the wolf, despite the fact that shooting a wolf is a felony. He'd also rather spend time with his son, played by Lukas Jann. The film works best during its most human moments, especially between father and son. Ren prays that his kid won't end up like he did, stuck in a small town along the Oregon coast. Baseball, he hopes, will be his son's way out of a dead-end life and a ticket to a good college. There's even a moment when he and Alma reminisce about their high school popularity and for a moment, bask in glory days long gone.
Some of the film's main flaws pertain to its creature design, the wolf especially, and also some of the ambiguous horror sequences that don't make a whole lot of sense until the last act. As stated, this film works best when it's grounded in the very real human relationship and Ren's personal challenges, coupled with his struggles to keep his life together and maintain any sort of relationship with his son. When Ren's kid goes missing, the film grows weirder and weirder. But again, we're dealing with an unreliable narrator here who also has a severe drinking problem and whose life is in shambles.
Despite some issues with the script, the acting is a major positive. Embry is great, especially the more he loses his mind. Devil's Candy already proved he can play a character struck by madness, and he really ups the ante in this film. Li is a good co-lead as Alma, also teetering on the edge of insanity. The scenes between she and Embry are some of the film's best. The Oregon coast and its thick, lush forests are another standout, setting the brooding tone and atmosphere.
Without spoiling anything, it must be said that the ending will likely frustrate a lot of viewers. It sort of negates everything that happened throughout the rest of the film. It also feels like too much of a cop-out. Still, overall, Alma and the Wolf has more positives that outweigh its flaws, especially the performances and a few nightmarish sequences. Though the wolf creature design looks cheesy at times, there's still some scares here and two standout performances by Li and Embry.
Alma and the Wolf releases in limited theaters and on digital on June 20.