"Wolfridge" was made in New Mexico, and as far as I know, only available in theaters there. I saw this with my girlfriend at the time, and we were amazed at how quickly the theater cleared out within the first 30 minutes alone.
The story, if it can be considered such, is a convoluted tale about an older Navajo wise man murdered by an insane villain. Why do we know he's insane, other than the fact that he kills people? Shortly after the murder, he plays with a pistol, putting the barrel in his mouth, taking it out again, apparently in a fit of existential doubt as to whether he should kill himself or not. At this point, I blurted out, "Damn, I forgot to load this thing. Suicide might be easier if it had bullets." This bizarre sequence lasted an eternity.
The fantasy element came in at the very end, when the murdered Navajo came back as a wolf to fight the man who murdered him, thus saving both the hero and the heroine. The audience at this point is treated to a cheesy animated segment where we witness a less than seamless shift between wolf and man. The computers used to create this were probably state of the art in 1974, but not in 1994, and worst of all, were unnecessary. The movie makers certainly didn't need special effects, cheesy or otherwise, for the audience to figure this out, all the hackneyed dialogue indicated this Native American "legend" about the dead coming back for retribution against those who killed them.
If we should ever have the misfortune of having this movie released on video or DVD, thus wasting the valuable plastic that could be used for more worthy purposes, I recommend only seeing this movie if you and the people you see this with (because seeing this movie alone would be painful) are good at MST3K'ing what you watch. This movie belongs in the same hall of shame that other movies filmed, produced and marketed exclusively in the American southwest are in, such as Arizona's "Werewolf" and New Mexico's "Track of the Moon Beast." At least these two exist as MST3K episodes, and the latter even gives you a recipe for chili (see user comments on that film to see what I mean).
The story, if it can be considered such, is a convoluted tale about an older Navajo wise man murdered by an insane villain. Why do we know he's insane, other than the fact that he kills people? Shortly after the murder, he plays with a pistol, putting the barrel in his mouth, taking it out again, apparently in a fit of existential doubt as to whether he should kill himself or not. At this point, I blurted out, "Damn, I forgot to load this thing. Suicide might be easier if it had bullets." This bizarre sequence lasted an eternity.
The fantasy element came in at the very end, when the murdered Navajo came back as a wolf to fight the man who murdered him, thus saving both the hero and the heroine. The audience at this point is treated to a cheesy animated segment where we witness a less than seamless shift between wolf and man. The computers used to create this were probably state of the art in 1974, but not in 1994, and worst of all, were unnecessary. The movie makers certainly didn't need special effects, cheesy or otherwise, for the audience to figure this out, all the hackneyed dialogue indicated this Native American "legend" about the dead coming back for retribution against those who killed them.
If we should ever have the misfortune of having this movie released on video or DVD, thus wasting the valuable plastic that could be used for more worthy purposes, I recommend only seeing this movie if you and the people you see this with (because seeing this movie alone would be painful) are good at MST3K'ing what you watch. This movie belongs in the same hall of shame that other movies filmed, produced and marketed exclusively in the American southwest are in, such as Arizona's "Werewolf" and New Mexico's "Track of the Moon Beast." At least these two exist as MST3K episodes, and the latter even gives you a recipe for chili (see user comments on that film to see what I mean).