To Kill a Wolf, Kelsey Taylor’s debut as a feature length writer-director, takes viewers deep into the gorgeous and incredibly cinematic woods of the Pacific Northwest. Starring Maddison Brown and Ivan Martin, the film elevates its classic fairy tale roots to explore a very modern, trauma-centered narrative. As I said in my original review from this year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the film would be an accomplishment for any director. That it exists as Taylor’s first full length feature is astounding, well deserving of comparisons to her cinematic influences of Debra Granik and Kelly Reichardt.
The finished product, however, was hardly an overnight success for the writer-director. Her script evolved from very different beginnings over the course of seven or eight years before she settled on the final, filmed script.
“There’s been a lot of layering, so it’s hard to say what that initial spark was exactly. For me, it always begins with the ‘what if’ game,” Taylor explained. “I do a lot of hiking and walking, and one of those days walking in the woods, I came to think about Little Red Riding Hood and the path through the woods. I thought what if Little Red Riding Hood was the bad guy? What if she was the scary thing in the woods? That led to what if Little Red Riding Hood had to save herself from the woodsman? That was the initial ‘what if’ that I continued to explore.”
Initial versions of the script trended toward a more genre-tilted thriller. That direction was in response to the current wildly popular indie horror slant. However, the finished product became less horror focused and evolved into a character study of two isolated, damaged people who happen to find a connection deep in the woods.
Brown’s Dani escapes a “wolf” of her own in the film and eventually finds her way to Martin’s woodsman, and both actors give fully committed, excellent performances. Martin’s haunted eyes carry a great deal of emotional weight and convey the woodsman’s inner pain without relying on dialogue. But Brown has the more challenging role. Dani is filled with teenage angst, crippling sadness, and unimaginable trauma. While neither Brown nor Taylor have experienced the kind of trauma the film explores, both artists leveraged personal experiences to inform their work.
“We both have had experiences that inform the way that we look at this and the way we feel. What’s sad is that most women do and a lot of men, too, with power dynamics and the imbalance of it all. I consume a lot of content in the true crime space. I’m sorry to say there’s too much right now,” Taylor said. “We have a problem, but I am fascinated by the things that happen behind closed doors that we don’t want to talk about. I feel like I’m always trying to understand those things that break your brain a little bit, and this is one of those things.”
To Kill a Wolf has seen exuberant reactions at multiple international film festivals. That experience and the conversations the film started are a phenomenon for which Taylor found she perhaps wasn’t ready. After all, when you spend eight years on a project, it can be a little scary to release it into the world. To face wolves of its own.
Fortunately, the very independent film receives an official nationwide theatrical release this August and September. There, it will take on a life of its own, and theatrical audiences will experience Taylor’s vision for themselves.
“I think putting out into the world is a scary thing, and I don’t think I realized that. After we premiered in Edinburgh, I did have a little moment of I don’t know if I like this because then people can go talk about it. It takes on a life of its own. It’s no longer yours, and I still have a lot of mixed feelings about it,” Taylor admitted. “The whole point of making this was to connect with other people and to share this story. So, when I hear that the film resonates with someone, when I read a review, I realize it was all worth it. It was all worth it.”
To Kill a Wolf is now playing in Los Angeles and will expand in cities nationwide in August and September. Check the website for dates.
