Subtitled films often earn themselves a bad name amongst Western audiences, with many of them earning a bad name for others by being overtly erotic or artsy. But Russian cinema has experienced a recovery recently, especially with action movies, notably the fantasy epic “Night Watch” and its sequel (appropriately titled “Day Watch”) which introduced us to director Timur Bekmambetov, who would later give us “Wanted.”

“Wolfhound” is another Russian film that may prove the career-making effort of director Nikolay Lebedev, this time a sword-and-sorcery fantasy based on the novel. Wolfhound is the title character, a man whose family and clan were slaughtered. As Wolfhound accepts a variety of tasks, most notably to escort a beautiful princess to meet her husband-to-be, the people responsible for the death of his family come within his reach.

“Wolfhound” is an old-fashioned movie in many ways: made in 2006, it’s taken this long to make it to Western audiences, and despite some impressive effects, the film has a classic feel to it, much like “Willow,” “Legend” or other 80s movies. The film is obviously produced on a fairly low budget, but it embraces that fact, turning away from too much CGI and focussing instead on practical effects where possible. Some are a bit too obvious, but the film doesn’t dwell on these, providing a surprisingly deep, and moving story.

VERDICT:

An interesting addition to any DVD collection, “Wolfhound” has been successful enough to spawn a prequel. Having taken five years to travel across Europe, it won’t be up to the ultra-modern standards that many people hold from their fantasy epics, but it comes close.

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