Terror at Red Wolf Inn



AKA: Folks at Red Wolf Inn
AKA: Red Wolf Inn
AKA: Terror Inn

Regina is lonely. It’s the beginning of spring break and she has no one to spend it with, what with her being stuck at school and all her classmates leaving to pursue other activities. But what’s this? According to this letter she just opened, Regina has just won an all expense paid vacation to a seaside resort called the Red Wolf Inn. Odd. She doesn’t remember entering any contests… Oh well though. A free vacation is a free vacation. So Regina packs a bag and heads off to her beach resort, which really turns out to be more of a large Victorian Bed and Breakfast owned by a very friendly older couple named Henry and Evelyn, and managed by their “slow” grandson, Baby John. Regina is still very puzzled by this whole event, but again, FREE TRIP! Plus, Baby John is sweet, the other girls staying at the Inn are nice, and Evelyn is a killer cook who practically makes feasts for every meal. But as the week goes on and the other two girls leave, Regina starts to suspect that her two new friends may not have left the inn as voluntarily as Evelyn and Henry claim, and that something very strange is happening at the remote and  unassuming Red Wolf Inn.


It’s a real classy joint, I can tell.

Terror at Red Wolf Inn is listed as a horror. But after watching it, it becomes clear that it has just enough tongue and cheek humor and cheesiness in it to count as a horror comedy. But not the “ha ha” type of horror comedy that gets used a lot today. No, this one is filled with a lot of dark humor in the way of not-so-subtle “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” moments aimed at the seasoned horror viewer to let them know what’s going on. And while it can be quite cheesy in places, the movie never feels too cheesy, and is also filled with ample amounts of drama, realism, and tension that all add a genuine feeling of fear and foreboding to the picture that helps to balance out some of the goofier aspects.



Again, the film isn’t a laugh-out-loud riot, nor the kind of black comedy filled with a lot of sarcastic quips, a-la something like Heathers. In fact, for the most part it’s played pretty straight. Or at least straight enough that you can mostly pretend it’s a regular old horror film. But you get hints fairly early on that the film isn’t going to take itself too seriously, when Regina first “wins” her vacation and then immediately runs outside to try to scream her good news into a completely empty commissary courtyard. Then later when Baby John picks her up from the airport, he’s forced to hide from the cops because of “too many speeding tickets”, only to then leisurely run over some poor schmuck’s fence a couple minutes later after the cops disappear. So for the most part the humor can be considered subtle, if not outright weird, depending on your taste. Other highlights include gratuitous close-ups of everyone’s obnoxious chewing during dinner, Baby John brutally beating a shark to death before telling Regina he loves her, and the abduction of Edwina. And then, just in case you make it through the whole movie and still can’t tell that the film isn’t supposed to be taken too seriously, the film literally gives you a “wink-wink” at the end to let you in on the joke.



And yet the film is actually still remarkably creepy. So much so that I was actually kind of impressed by how disturbing a lot of it turned out, because I was NOT expecting that when the movie started. Actually, I wasn’t expecting that for quite a bit, because the really disturbing moments don’t really kick in until you’re close to an hour into the movie, and the tension quickly grows from there as the proverbial walls slowly start to close around Regina as she desperately tries to figure out a way to escape her predicament. What’s not so shocking though is the big revelation regarding the true horror of what’s happening to the lodgers at the Red Wolf Inn. Because, let’s be real, unless you’ve never watched a horror movie before in your life then you’ll already know exactly what the big “twist” is that the movie has been leading up to, because the film has been blatantly telegraphing it since the first time Regina sat down to dinner. And if you still don’t know what I’m talking about, let’s just say that Red Wolf Inn doesn’t get nearly enough credit for beating both The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Motel Hell to the proverbial “super crazy family with uncomfortable dietary staples” punch.


If you still don’t get it, I don’t know what else to tell you.

Perhaps the film’s strongest attribute next to the creepy subject matter and use of tension is its cast who, despite some of the weirdness going on, play their roles perfectly and manage to keep everything grounded. Linda Gillen’s Regina is an awkward, but very likable protagonist, and does a great job of balancing hopelessness and resourcefulness usually required for the “final girl” role, at a time before that term had even been coined. Then you have veteran TV actors Arthur Space and Mary Jackson, as Henry Smith and Evelyn Smith, respectively, who try to come across as the harmless old owners, but can’t quite mask that foreboding feeling surrounding them that something just isn’t right. Side characters include Janet Wood as the slightly pretentious and preppy Pamela and, to my great amusement, a young Margaret Avery of The Color Purple fame, as the friendly Edwina. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see an Academy Award nominee in this film, so that was a nice surprise. And finally we have John Neilson as Baby John, whose characterization, sadly, seems to be a bit all over the place. His character is supposed to be slightly mentally…off, in some way, though whether his affliction is due to lack of proper socialization or an actual mental disorder of some kind is unclear. But his “affliction” never seems to be consistent, waffling between functioning perfectly fine and showing competence, and completely floundering and throwing a tantrum at the smallest provocation the next. Which probably isn’t so much the actor’s fault, as it is an issue with the script, but either way his characterization can feel a bit confusing.


I don’t know how you couldn’t like Regina. She’s cute and has such good taste in wall decor.

By the time the movie was over, I was very surprised how much I ended up liking Terror at Red Wolf Inn. When the film opened with a mournful ballad filled with lyrics so cheesy it made me yearn for a Taylor Swift song, my doubt meter was running high and I almost turned it off so I could watch something else. But I’m glad I didn’t, because it actually turned out to be pretty good. It’s not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. Its very low-budget, quirks, illogical ending and inability NOT to fall into horror tropes before they were really even horror tropes (seriously Regina, why did you stop running. NEVER STOP RUNNING!) keeps the movie from true greatness. But none of that keeps it from being a fun and enjoyable ride. So if you like obscure 70s horror, or want to see one of the earlier examples of ‘horror comedy’ and don’t mind the low-budget, then you could do worse than Terror at Red Wolf Inn.

Terror at Red Wolf Inn is available on a variety of streaming services.

Terror at Red Wolf Inn is also available on DVD.

Helpful Links: