_**Don’t go in the woods of Southern California!**_ Two brothers, their wives, and another couple go to Wolf Mountain in the desert hills north of Los Angeles to resolve a mystery from 20 years prior. Havoc ensues as corpses start mounting up. Tobin Bell and Danny Trejo are featured in small parts. “Curse of Wolf Mountain,” aka “Wolf Mountain” (2022), is basically a cabin-in-the-woods flick, except that the protagonists are camping out. The nature of the antagonist is kept ambiguous until the last act. Is it a wild man, a werewolf, or something else? The flick is essentially a modern take on 80’s movies like “Don't Go in the Woods” and “Memorial Valley Massacre.” It’s better than the former and about on par with the latter. Raven-haired Malu Trevejo as Emma is one of the highlights; she’s just stunning, reminiscent of, say, Salma Hayek in her youth. Regrettably, she’s removed from the proceedings too early. The fools. The male protagonist is played by Keli Price, who could play Peter Parker. He also wrote the script. The flick runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot at SilverStrand Ranch in Castaic, which is a 55-minute drive northwest of Los Angeles in the arid high country. GRADE: B-/C+
