Now and again, a character actor with a proud working history in Hollywood gets a big break as the headliner of a horror film. Being first in the call sheet has not been common in Ethan Embry’s career, but his 106 titles have stamped him as a reliable “that guy” character actor ever since his youthful turn in Vegas Vacation 28 years ago. Li Jun Li hasn’t been in the business as long as Embry, but she, too, has a multitude of mostly TV credits to her name, but has found herself on a bit of a hot streak, having performed in the recent horror hit, Sinners. Together, they deliver a terrific chemistry that weaves a complex, decades-old relationship. This protagonist-forward story carries a great deal of emotional weight, looping, twisting, and ultimately becoming heartbreaking.

This movie is saturated with loneliness and regret, interspersed with some fun and silly absurdity to keep you engaged until the startling finish. Prepare to scratch your head. Not to say the film is confusing, but it does have layers of ambiguity and hints of alternate realities that move down parallel paths. A second watch may be required to catch all the idiosyncrasies of the plot.

Ren Arnold is a hot mess. He may not show it on the outside, but self-destruction lies right below the surface. He recently separated from his wife, Connie, who took their son with her. Ren lives with constant regret. He feels stuck in the lonely seaside hamlet, unable to parley his previous baseball skills into a ticket out of town. Now he is stuck as a sheriff’s deputy, relegated to chasing off high school drinkers and availing himself of their ill-gotten booze.

The office summons him to a situation for him to investigate. Alma, one of his old high school crushes, is wandering the misty highway outside town, carrying the corpse of her mutilated dog, Tigger. She is found walking the road in a tank top and shorts, soaked to the bone, and covered in blood. When Ren takes her back to the office for questioning, she claims that a wolf and a herd of goats destroyed her dog. She implores Ren to kill the wolf. Ren then sneaks off to watch his son pitch, accompanied by the new deputy Murphy, as Ren pounds impounded beers under the bleachers. He makes a drunken fool of himself in front of his wife and son, and while on his way home, runs into the goats and wolf Alma described, but he fails to kill the wolf, which becomes a bipedal wolfman.

Fortunately for Ren, the werewolf disappears. Was this a drunken dream?

The next day, Ren is approached by Alma at the sheriff’s office, and she asks him on a date. He anxiously agrees, but he has forgotten that that night, Jack is staying with him. Jack tells his dad to take the date, and that he’ll be fine. Ren knows that a baseball scout had come to see Jack pitch, and he is vicariously excited for his son to achieve what he could not. Ren goes on his date with Alma, not knowing that he won’t see his son again.

The wolf has struck again.

Ren’s life not only turns upside down, but sideways as well. A manhunt is on to find Jack, but strange forces are at play. Is there a cult? What is that werewolf? What’s up with those sheep? Why is everyone in town getting sick? Deja vu takes hold, and flashbacks interrupt Ren’s line of thinking. Reality bends and twists as motives are revealed, alibis fall apart, and a horrible and uncomfortable truth comes to the fore.

Ren is the ultimate unreliable narrator. Living in a drunken haze and suffering from mountains of anxiety and stress, Ren confronts his world from an unstable platform. The story features many quirky characters, and there are some genuine Twin Peaks vibes at play. Alternately, consider the ’90s sitcom Northern Exposure, but with a helping of mean and nasty to go along with the small-town PNW experience. Portland has a saying: “Keep Portland Weird.” That ethos carries over to the Oregon coast for this movie.

Embry shines in this role. Ren is a character with a lot of depth and texture. Embry manages to draw out joy, rage, sorrow, and confusion in a palpable portrayal. Li Jun Li is delightful and hard to pin down. I loved watching her in Sinners, and she mirrors Embry well. For me, the revelation is the young actor Lukas Jann. There is a Timothy Chalamet quality to his work. (It helps that they look similar.) Jann plays Jack with natural grace. Nothing forced, and he is the emotional core of this plot. The ensemble embodied the eccentricity of an isolated small town that enjoys breaking stereotypes.

Weird can get in the way of clarity, though.

Michael Patrick Jann plays sleight of hand with his filmmaking. Sets and locations unexpectedly change without explanation. Ren appears to be living in a lovely suburban home, but later wakes up in a ramshackle trailer home. Which one is the real home? Curious, indeed. Alma has many varied forms, and yet none of them are thoroughly investigated. Again, unreliable narrator. Who, or what, is Alma? Eye of the beholder, I assume. She isn’t a figure of Ren’s imagination, as other characters interact with her. Is this a strength or a weakness of the film?

My thoughts are mixed.

I loved the cast and characters. The emotional current through the movie won me over. The ending is devastating. Be prepared for that. And, allow yourself just to get lost in the plot nuances. This movie relies heavily on thematic resonance rather than logic or reason. Alma and the Wolf deftly uses absurdism, and does not overplay its hands. Among the crowd-pleasing scenes is the confrontation between Ren and Murphy and the flock of “deadly” goats. Does it make sense? Hello no! Is it fun? Absolutely.

There is some risk in the mixed tone of this movie. Like a David Lynch film, it draws you in and out of conventional storytelling, blending purely wacky moments. It spends much of the time building up how unusual and endearing the characters are, and then it crushes some of them in a jarring fashion. The costumes were… adequate. We do get a good transformation scene, but the monsters aren’t anything to write home about. The wolf, werewolf, and goats take a back seat to the psychological trauma.

The Oregon coast also plays a significant role in the film. There is a Brontë-esque quality to the coast in winter. Mist, gloom, and beach grass apply a folk-horror quality to the visuals. It is both lovely and sad. If this film had been shot in the summer, it would be a different story. The northern Oregon coast is spectacular in the summer, but in the winter, it can be quite gloomy.

It worked for me. I’ll watch it again, and I’ve seen it three times now. I had the opportunity to interview Ethan for the film, but sadly, my recorder batteries gave out mid-recording. I managed to record a lively Q&A session at the Portland Horror Film Festival, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Alma and the Wolf is still on the festival circuit. It is rated R for some strong violent content/gore, and language. This Paramount picture is now available streaming on many platforms, including Amazon Prime.