Which is scarier: a maniac in an orange ski mask wielding a hunting knife - or Jon Bon Jovi as a journalism teacher? Cry_Wolf gives us both, and though Bon Jovi is livin' on a prayer if he thinks he's an actor, the movie is a find.

A clever teen thriller with intricate plotting, deft characterizations, sharp ensemble performances and a darkly ironic twist at the end.

The low splatter quotient may not be enough to quell the blood lust of slasher fans, but several neat plot twists - and a surprise ending - make Cry Wolf a cut above the rest.

A cut above the usual level of slasher films, with its overly convoluted plot enhanced by an impressive level of cinematic style. It also places a greater emphasis on surprising plot twists than gore.

First-time screenwriters Jeff Wadlow and Beau Bauman prove more adept at staging mind games than creating chills and thrills for the audience.

But clichéd rapid-fire editing and cheap-looking digital-image manipulation drain away every ounce of atmosphere, and overexplanation blows what could have been a darkly ambiguous ending.

Almost totally reliant on red herrings and the viewer's nervous reflexes.

Director Jeff Wadlow and his co-writer/producer Beau Bauman throw in a couple of gripping sequences, especially one set in a library sub-basement with an energy-saving lighting system, but for a film that's essentially one big logic problem, there's an unfortunate absence of logic to the way its characters behave.

Cry_Wolf is underscored with idiot adolescent excitement (and gets extra absurdist points for casting Jon Bon Jovi as an educator).

A second-rate slasher, but it shows the odd bit of directorial promise and a great deal of ambition.

This was a better movie back when it was called "Gossip" . . . oh, wait, no -- that one sucked too.

Cry Wolf is one of those movies that's rated PG-13 not because the producers wanted to get the broadest audience possible, but because no one 17 or older would be sucker enough to fall for it.

Despite an ambitious script from Wadlow and Beau Bauman, it's extremely difficult to care, seeing as how these tropes have already been recycled enough to make Greenpeace proud.