“This is a good lesson for you about the food chain. Everything has a place. Poachers? They’re at the very bottom.”

By Jason Hink

How’s the real world treating ya? With all these ambiguous “peak TV” heroes (excuse me, antiheroes) now walking among us and proliferating our real lives, isn’t it nice to escape for a few moments and watch some good old-fashioned, unambiguous family viewing with clear delineations between good and evil? It’s hard to find it in modern programming, but if you search hard enough through the vast abyss (wasteland?) of current “content” you’ll find a company like Imagicomm Entertainment, which has released on DVD Love in Wolf Creek, a 2022 made-for-cable romantic adventure produced by Brain Power Studio and INSP Films.

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Initially airing in 2022 on the UPtv cable network, Love in Wolf Creek has all the cheesy small-screen romance you’ve come to expect from these Hallmark Channel-inspired outings. Starring Tim Rozon and Nola Martin along with Madeline Leon, Bobby Daniels, Mary Long, and a sinister Nicolas Grimes, Love in Wolf Creek nails the template in the TV movie-romance textbook, and some well-staged action sequences give this one a fun adventure feel that’s missing from many of these lower-budget cable offerings.

In quaint, quiet, rural Wolf Creek, Samantha (Nola Martin) is doing God’s work, running a small non-profit animal conservation refuge. Living there are skittish horses, rascally raccoons, and all manner of cuddly critters with fun personalities to spare. Helping Sam run the refuge is her sister Sunny (Madeline Leon), the least annoying millennial glued to her phone that I’ve ever seen. Despite everyone telling Sunny to “put her phone away,” she has good reason for whipping it out whenever a cute or engaging moment appears: she’s the refuge’s social media coordinator! (Which begs the question: why is everyone giving the social media coordinator such a hard time about creating content for the refuge’s social media? It’s her job, after all.)

When Sunny is told that “clicks and views do not pay the bills,” her short video of a rescue involving her sister Sam goes mildly viral, catching the attention of a limousine-ridin’ woman (Paris Jefferson) interested in checking out the refuge with the possibility of awarding the small (“but growing,” as one character states) operation some much needed funding. When she phones the refuge, Sam and Sunny stumble and fumble over their words with excitement. The woman is visiting tomorrow at 9am, and there is much cleaning, organizing, and fixing up to do around the refuge. Can they get it in shape in time?

But none of that matters. For Wolf Creek is so named due to its historic roots as a home for wild wolves, which have become nearly extinct over the decades. When town grocer George (Bobby Daniels) is en route to deliver a crate of apples, the fruit in his passenger seat spills onto the floor. When George attempts to retrieve the fallen fruit while driving (taking his eye off the road for a second), he looks up to see a wolf crossing the highway in front of him. He swerves, but it’s too late; he’s convinced he’s hit the four-legged creature and reports his mishap to Sam back at the refuge.

Sam, meanwhile, is busy prepping for the big donor visit. Needing to rent a nail gun, she visits the local hardware store run by the elderly—and nearly blind—Mariana (Mary Long), where Sam meets handsome farm boy Austin (Tim Rozon), Mariana’s grandson, who is in town visiting for a few weeks to help out. The nail gun Sam needs to rent isn’t available, but (naturally) Mariana has grandson Austin deliver it later to Sam at the refuge, just in time for Austin to witness an aghast George telling his story about the wolf he accidentally struck, which has scurried off into the woods, injured.

The refuge desperately needs funding, and with her chance to get some the following morning, Sam must get the property in presentable shape overnight. But there’s no way she can sit back and let that near-extinct wolf die in the woods from its injuries. So, she immediately packs up her ATV to set off into the woods. But wouldn’t you know it—Austin is also a master tracker, and he insists on tagging along with her to help find the animal. (And when a handsome stranger arrives in town and befriends the lovely-but-strong-willed lady, well…you can guess where this is going, right?)

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Can Sam and Austin find and save the injured wolf? Can little sister Sunny get the refuge cleaned up in time for the big donor visit (with help from reckless-driving Bobby and blind Mariana)? If you’re a fan of these types of movies, you already know the answers to these questions…and that familiar feeling doesn’t bother you one bit.

I didn’t grow up watching the Hallmark Channel or Lifetime movies, except when I’d catch them at a relative’s or via disc release like this one (I ditched cable way back in 2001), but I enjoy dipping my toe into these often cheesy, overly earnest, straight-forward family romances. Love in Wolf Creek offers up additional fun on top of the usual will-they-or-won’t-they awkwardness; there is some great, classic film-inspired adventure once protagonists Sam and Austin hit the rugged forest on their ATVs and battle the elements.

And where there’s adventure, there’s usually action…and Love in Wolf Creek scratches that genre itch in the form of evil, greedy poacher Calvin (Nicolas Grimes), a towering, militant villain dressed in all black, illegally hunting on the conservation grounds for wolves…and profit! When Sam and Austin encounter Calvin in the the forest, they get more than they bargained for as he proves to be much worse—and much more dangerous—than your average poacher. Can our romantic leads survive the elements and this menace to rural society? And will Sheriff Mann (Karen Glave) ever show up when we need her?

The performances are pretty good here, though character interactions sometimes fall into camp territory with director Marco Deufemia laying on the cheese during Rozon and Martin’s flirty moments, playing up the silliness when it’s made obvious to the viewer that they just might like each other (hey, there’s only 90 minutes to tell this story, so some beating over the head to get the point across is okay). Whether it’s too mushy for you or not, it doesn’t detract from the story (from screenwriter Neale Elizabeth Kimmel), which sets up director Deufemia with opportunities for action and adventure, such as scaling a giant rock wall, leaping from a cliff into water, being chased by an angry pack of wasps, and all-out physical assault from a dangerous enemy in poacher Calvin.

This Love in Wolf Creek DVD release from Imagicomm (distributed by Mill Creek Entertainment) runs 85 minutes and includes English SDH subtitles. The main special feature is a short (2m, 25s) promotional First Look doc with interview clips from the actors interspersed with scenes from the film. Also included is a photo gallery and trailers from other Imagicomm releases.

You already know if you will or won’t enjoy something like Love in Wolf Creek. It’s light, fun, and silly…and you’ll probably forget what happens the following day. But if you’re in the mood for something less heavy (like current 2023 real life), it makes for perfect viewing over the holiday season, or a movie night with mom and grandma.

Jason Hink is a writer, editor and content producer. Sign up for his Email Newsletter here. For more of Jason’s reviews, visit here.