User Reviews

'Bad Wolf Down'. Written and directed by Rob Schrab. During WWII, a platoon of American soldiers is forced to hide from German forces inside an abandoned police station. There, they find badly mangled bodies and a distraught French woman (Kate Freund) with a deadly secret. Once they find out what her story is, they decide to use it to their advantage in order to escape the German soldiers who are closing in. Other than a typically fun performance from genre stalwart Jeffrey Combs (as a vengeance-crazed Nazi officer), this basically amounts to pretty goofy nonsense: watchable enough, but terminally silly. The gore is fine, and this viewer didn't mind the look of the werewolves too much. Most of the acting is not-so-hot, especially from a Jerk soldier named Quist (Nelson Bonilla); the name, of course, is a reference to "The Howling".

Things pick up a bit in the macabre but endearing "Man and his Highly Unusual 'Pet'" yarn 'The Finger'. Written by David J. Schow, and directed by series creator Greg Nicotero, this has a lonely but sympathetic loser, Clark Wilson (DJ Qualls) finding a severed finger during his walking tours of L.A. (The guys' main character trait is that he likes to pocket things that other people have discarded.) The finger soon grows into a full-sized creature, admittedly kind of a variation on the Xenomorphs in the "Alien" franchise, but not a full-blown imitation. Clark dubs the creature "Bob", and finds that Bob constantly displays a real loyalty to his master, nastily dispatching anyone with the capacity to cause Clark misery. (Even a debt collector!) The appealing relationship between Clark & Bob makes this an entertaining enough story to watch (Bob loves popcorn and watching soap operas), and there is more than enough splatter to keep some horror fans happy. Qualls delivers a very engaging performance, although this viewer could have done with a little less of that popular "lead character talks directly to the audience" device. The dialogue actually manages to reference "Midnight Run"!

All through the episode, there is some truly wonderful comic book art; those responsible truly need to take a bow.

Seven out of 10.

Bad wolf good episode but so much like a cropped version of the amazing British horror dog soldiers.

The first part Bad Wolf Down was complete garbage, terrible acting and story. I was really bored all the way through this one.

The finger however was absolutely thrilling. I'm not usually a fan of DJ Qualls, but his performance in The Finger was really great, his disheveled and mentally unstable character was both creepy and fun, and his relationship with Bob was the high point here. The design of Bob was really reminiscent of Alien, yet unique in it's own way. Really great production quality on this one.

Hopefully the rest of the episodes is as good as The Finger.

Bad wolf down had a good start and story line but was let dow by the poor cgi of the wolf men.

The finger was outstanding, loved the story line and BOB ofcourse!

For me the second half redeemed itself and helped me still give it a top score as i really enjoyed the episode as a whole.

I thought the first story was pointless. A pitiful revenge story with werewolves. Pretty much all about gore. The second one was better. DJ Qualls really did a good job. The story was interesting although the ending was really abrupt. If it weren't for the first story, this would have a good rating.

It is a great homage to the original wolf man, the howling and werewolf in London. Wonderful acting, slightly campy and really great practical special effects. I'm so stoked this was renewed for another season and I hope they get an even bigger budget for it! The Finger I find to be a perfectly cute horror comedy. I love the companionship they have, the narration by the main actor is fabulous and funny, and it ended right where I thought it should.

Don't get me wrong, I've been a true horror fan all my life, especially the werewolf movies. The problem is my inflated expectations.

Bad wolf down looks like a Halloween fancy dress party with great Jeffrey Combs stopping by. The suits? The make up? Have you seen "Wolf cop"? The make up and directing are similar here. Directed by Nicotero himself, The Finger is way more inventive, intriguing and even dramatic. The plot is unusual and DJ Qualls is a perfect choice for the lead in this one.

It's evident the authors' intent is to make some episodes cheesy and nostalgic, but in the wrong hands (Bad wolf down) it will look more like the late 90's-00's amateurish direct-to-dvd stuff, than the good old anthologies we love.

First half of the episode is a 6, nothing original but found it decent enough. Nothing that hasn't been seen before in film or tv. However, really campy and didn't take itself too seriously which made it more enjoyable.

The second half, The Finger, absolutely brilliant, 10/10. DJ is fantastic in the role, so unhinged and funny. The style of story telling is excellent for the black humour of the piece. His interaction with Bob is hilarious and weirdly heart warming. It makes me want a Bob of my own. Glad to see original pieces that showcase the actor's ability included in the series. Hoping for more like these!

The Finger, on the other hand, is VERY good, even if it's not especially scary. Or anything even CLOSE to scary. At all. But it IS fun! Even if just for DJ Qualls, who's a friggin gem in everything he's in. He's predictably great (in the best way) as Clark Wilson, a lonely man who's treated badly by pretty much everyone. Until one day he finds a mysterious severed finger, takes it home, and it slowly grows into someone - someTHING - that just wants to help...

Bad Wolf Down, on the other hand, is a waste of time except for Jeffrey Combs playing a typically-unhinged character - a Nazi officer out for revenge over his dead son, this time. Pretty much everything else has been time dozens, if not hundreds, of times before, and done far better.

Wolves is already a movie that exists. As is the original Alien. Again, a low budget in horror is nothing new. It's what you do with it. They needed to put it all into the director and the actors and only in part 2 did I feel they did that well.