Dark comedy, or comedy-horror, is one ofBritish television’s strong points.Misfits,Snuff Box,Jam,Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace… there are many a gem to have crawled out of the twisted and brilliant minds behind British late-night TV that make audiences question whether they should be appalled or enthralled by the Island’s unique brand ofgallows humor. It’s no surprise then, that 2023 brought us a grizzly psychological thriller in the form ofWolf:a shining example of that quintessentially British tone that falls between horrifying and hilarious. Created byMegan Gallagher(Seizure,Borderliner) and adapted from the novel of the same name by authorMo Hayder,Wolftouts an impressive cast that includes bothIwan RheonandOwen TealeofGame of Thronesfame. If you’re looking fora darkly humorous, twisted, and grizzly thrillerthat coats itself in constant homages to classic horror,Wolfis likely right up your alley. The only problem is that, so far, it’s only been made available on the BBC’s iPlayer and on Max in select countries in Europe, so its availability remains limited.
Still, our British and European readers who are fans of the genre may want to make sure they don’t miss this one. The central plot for this wild ride will seemfamiliar to fans of horror: A snooty, upper-middle-class family consisting of a mother, a father, a daughter, and a fluffy white dog return to their ludicrously huge home in the quaint countryside of Wales so that the father can recover from a heart transplant. The family brushes off the obvious warning signs of impending doom with a comically calm air of the British saying “Keep calm and carry on.” The warning signs are there – guts and gore strung up in the trees of their garden in a ghoulish ritualistic display. As is foreshadowed,the family eventually suffers a home invasion and is taken hostage by two sadistic strangerswho, it seems, merely want to torment them for some jolly ‘ole fun. “We want to make you scared,” the men say in response to the mother’s desperate pleas for an explanation. If this is ringing any bells, it’s becauseWolfshares a very similar setup to an absolute cult classic of 90s horror:Michael Haneke’s 1997home-invasion horrorfilmFunny Gamesand itsAmerican remake of the same name.Wolf wears this inspiration quite proudly on its sleeve though, as Haneke’s torture-filled thriller is not the only genre film thatWolfhomages in its six-episode runtime.
‘Wolf’ Is a Great Blend of Horror and Comedy
The two strangers, who give the clearly false names ofMolinaandHoney, provide the brutality ofFunny Games’ home invaders, as actorsSacha Dhawanand Iwan Rheon terrorize and torture their victims in a similarly gleeful, almost childlike manner. Their nefarious intentions contrast against a friendly, quintessentially British demeanor in a way that isboth disturbing and amusingfor the audience. (If you have a twisted enough sense of humor, that is.) It will be no surprise to hear that Rheon, the actor who played Ramsay Bolton for four seasons ofGame of Thrones, yet again masterfully plays the role of a menacing sadist much likethe torturer of Dreadfort– so much so that one might worry that this marvelous actor is at risk of being type-cast. This quickly ceases to be a concern though, as both Honey and Molina bring a whimsically dark sense of humor to this whole tale, setting Rheon’s performance apart from the more Stoic Ramsay Bolton. Yes, on the one hand, they are torturing innocent civilians (apparently) for fun, but their consistent schoolboy banter and aloof demeanor make the scenario somehow comical despite the carnage.
This contrast of lighthearted aloofness and brutal sadism is especially apparent as Honey dramatically lip-syncs along to the classical Opera “The Barber of Seville,” all the while torturing a family member with bondage and a blade in what feels like a homage tothe dance ofMr. BlondefromReservoir Dogs. The strangers become increasingly comical as the show progresses and more of the unexpected twists are revealed as well, slowly but surely devolving them from a terrifying threat akin toA Clockwork Orange’s gang of Droogs towardsHome Alone’s snickering, bickering duo ofincompetent and dimwitted Wet Bandits.It’s all in good fun though, as the tone is quite well established to be grim-dark but comical from the get-go.
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‘Wolf’ Is a Constant Stream of Horror Homages
The story of Honey and Molina and their jolly home invasion is but one cut ofWolf’s multi-layered pie of genre-mixing andplot twists. As the audience is immersed in a dark, gothic image of Britain, where cities are plagued by unspeakable acts of senseless violence and the countryside hides the same evil under a fake facade of quaint village life, the show takes every opportunity it can to tie a new ribbon to its totem pole of horror tropes. Before the halfway point of this ride is even reached, a techno-dancing slasher known as theDonkey Pitch Killeris introduced, toting a gas mask, a hazmat suit, and a taste for disemboweling teenagers that will remind viewers ofthe classic splatter fest horrorMy Bloody Valentine.Not long after that,we’re introduced to a sinister cultbuilt upon the foundations of rave culture, drugs, and the use of horror movies to plan grizzly pranks and gory enactments in the name of macabre theater. Alongside the cult, the slasher, and the home invaders, there’s also a subplot of a child abductor that has tormented the show’s leading man for years with a ghoulish, almost supernatural presence, whose long hair and shadowy aura will remind many ofTwin Peaks’iconic killer known as Bob.
All these different shades of horror tropes are connected together by the show’s main protagonist: Detective InspectorJack Caffery, who is thrown in the middle of a murder mystery after finding a fluffy white dog with a broken ankle and nothing but a foreboding note attached to its collar, reading “Help us.” This is where the showrunner Megan Gallagher and her previous work shines through, asWolf’s many different subplots and scares tie together in a spiraling murder investigation led by lead actorUweki Roach’s brooding detective. As Jack tries to discover the true identity of the Donkey Pitch Killer whilst simultaneously looking for evidence that will allow him to arrest the predator that has haunted his dreams since childhood, he fights against the clock to locate Honey and Molina’s home-invasion victims as well. The plot feels both chaotic and cathartic up until the final moments of the last episode, but despite regularly threatening to become too convoluted to follow or even care about, the various threads ofWolfcome together in the end, as long as suspension of disbelief is permitted.
The Silly Undertones Give ‘Wolf’ a Lighthearted Touch
Suspending disbelief won’t be difficult though, as the show establishes itself to be quite surreal or, as viewers of the show who didn’t enjoy the tone would say, unrealistic. The various wild subplots that owe their inspiration to a lot of yesteryears' morepulpy, grindhouse-like horrorsfirmly establish that we shouldn’t expect a self-serious, realistic British police procedural in the vein ofBroadchurch. No, this is a wacky type ofwhodunit, where it’s less about being immersed in the tantalizing work of a detective and more about falling down a rabbit hole only conceivable through a detective’s wildest fever dreams after they binge-watcheda box set of horror classics.
Another string to this surrealist bow is the collection of firm winks at the surreal murder mystery classicTwin Peaks. Besides the aforementioned creepy child killer who seems as ifTwin Peaks’Bob relocated to London, our protagonist uses a trance-like dream state to tie the threads of his case together in what reminds of a combination ofSherlock’s mind temple and the dreams ofTwin Peaks’Detective Cooper. There’s also the general theme of occult horrors hiding in contrasting, lighthearted places, which again aligns spiritually withLynch’s critically acclaimed series. Last but not least in the show’s Lynchiansensibilities is a collection of scenes that contrast ultraviolence with lighthearted songs and dances (no more can be said due to spoilers.)
Ultimately,Wolfis a wild show thatnever lets the viewer get comfortable, as it moves between twists and tropes at a breakneck pace. It’s not recommendable to watchWolfwith any clear expectations or a specific genre in mind, as what initially feels like aclassic home-invasion thrillerturns intoa police procedural mixed with slasher horrorand a fine dose of aWicker Man-like cult mystery sprinkled in to boot. All the viewer can rely on is a sick sense of humor throughout, electric performances from the show’s sinister villains, and the guarantee of a complexwhodunitmurder mystery that comes together in the end, albeit in a not-so-unexpected way that isn’t exactly grounded in reality. For the fun twists, grizzly tension, and homages to classic horror that feel more like a love letter than a rip-off, it’s definitely worth checking outWolfnow … assuming you’re able to!
Wolfis available to stream on BBC iPlayer in the U.K., and is available on Max in select European countries.
