Following The Integrity of Joseph Chambers, Hunting Daze and Hunters on a White Field, Adam MacDonald's Out Come the Wolves is the latest indie drama to employ the backdrop of a hunting trip for an exploration of men regressing to an animal state. This one is more of a survival thriller than the aforementioned examples, with human savages coming up against actual animals in a pack of hungry wolves.

Sophie (Missy Peregrym) hunted all her life, having been raised in the family tradition, but a recent experience in which she looked into the eyes of an animal and couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger has made her not only give up hunting but turn vegan. When her fiancé Nolan (Damon Runyan) decides to write an article on hunting for the foodie magazine he edits, Sophie invites her childhood friend and fellow hunter Kyle (Joris Jarsky) to her family's remote cabin to take Nolan out on a hunting trip. Kyle is supposed to be accompanied by his girlfriend but he arrives on his own, claiming his other half had work commitments. This immediately unsettles Nolan. Sophie speaks of Kyle as being like a brother, but Nolan sees how Kyle looks at her. When Sophie retires to bed, the two drunken men begin butting their metaphorical antlers as Nolan tries to get Kyle to confess his true intentions towards Sophie.

When the boys wake the next morning with pounding heads, it makes for a fraught trip into the woods. Nolan tries to apologise but Kyle seems distracted by the hunt. An argument ensues when Kyle refuses to finish off a wounded deer, with Nolan insisting he's had enough hunting for one day. Just as it seems the two men are about to have it out, they realise they're surrounded by a pack of snarling wolves.

Out Come the Wolves benefits greatly from its decision to use what certainly appear to my eyes to be actual wolves. With the first half of the film devoted to establishing a believably tense dynamic between its human protagonists, the whole setup would have fallen apart with the appearance of unconvincing digital doggos. That we see the actors physically interact with live animals adds an extra layer of tension, and when the animals attack it's shockingly viscous. Not since Roar, the infamous 1981 film in which multiple actors and crew members were left scarred for life after being mauled by lions, have onscreen animal attacks looked this convincing. Kyle and Nolan might be in a human fight to establish their alpha male credentials, but they're immediately out of their depth when they encounter the genuine article.

Rather than the expected narrative conceit of Kyle and Nolan having to put their differences aside to survive, the film takes a dark turn as they both view their situation as a way to get rid of their rival. The initial setup recalls the many movies in which two men fight for dominance in the company of a solo woman (The World, the Flesh and the Devil; The Last Woman on Earth; The Quiet Earth; Z for Zachariah), but the woman in this case is given more agency than we're accustomed to in such scenarios. Donning an allusional red hoody, Sophie arms herself with arrows and heads into the woods to take out the big bad wolves.

Scenarios like this can often be hard to endure for animal lovers, but Out Come the Wolves never paints its animals as the villains. The wolves here are simply following their instincts, and it's only when they come up against Sophie that we find ourselves rooting against them, as most viewers will be happy to see the highly unlikable male duo become doggy chow. That Sophie is reluctantly forced to return to hunting after her recent revelation adds a melancholy note to the action. There are no "Yasss, slay kween!" moments here, as Sophie herself is sickened by the actions she's forced to take.

While Kyle and Nolan are open with one another regarding how they view Sophie as a possession, there's much left unsaid in this film. We're never explicitly told that Sophie is pregnant, but there are plenty of clues that suggest that's the case, from the way Nolan pats her belly at one point to the repeated sonic motif of what sounds a lot like an ultrasound on the soundtrack. It's not hard to surmise that becoming a mother is likely what caused Sophie to stop hunting. The film's final image alludes once more to the idea of Sophie carrying a child, but by that point it's tempered by uncertainty now that Sophie has seen her supposedly sophisticated fiancé regress to a state closer to that of the animals she now refuses to harm.

Directed by: Adam MacDonald

Starring: Missy Peregrym, Joris Jarsky, Damon Runyan