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Film: Cry in the Wild: The Taking of Peggy Ann
Year: 1991
Director: Charles Correll
Writer: Durrell Royce Crays
Starring: David Morse, Megan Follows and Dion Anderson
Review:
This film takes place in rural Pennsylvania back in 1966. We see that they the people live a simple and hard life in the hills. The film starts off showing us a woman with her baby driving down a back road and stopping at a fallen tree. She gets out and a man appears from the woods with a shotgun. This man is played by David Morse. The woman flees back to her car as he fires at her. She does get away.
The main character is played by Megan Follows. She lives with her brothers and sisters along with her mother, played by Kathryn Howell, as well as her father, played by Jack Kehler. He is a hard man and has a tendency to disappear for stretches of time. He also has difficulties keeping a job.
We see Follows and her siblings going about their normal routine, which involves going to school, chores and helping their mother. She has just found a job where she has to work nights at a food processing plant. We get a scene earlier on where Follows’ younger sister states there is someone in the woods watching them.
The local police officer in charge is Dion Anderson. They try to find this man, but he disappears into the woods. We get another scene where a storm is coming and a father goes to check his shed to ensure it is secure. Morse is looking through a window while the man’s daughter is in the shower. He yells at Morse, but is shot. The man does survive though.
There is a young man who finds Follows attractive. He comes out of the woods one day, but he’s shy. He asks her to prom while on the bus and she tells him that her parents would not allow it. The boy is played by Jason Rojek.
After getting off the bus, Follows and her siblings are walking home when Morse appears from the woods. He kidnaps her and the rest run home. Kehler grabs his gun and goes to find her. He follows their trail, but doesn’t find them. The police are then called in.
Follows at first doesn’t recognize him. She is terrified and tries to convince him to let her go. We see that he is wearing a disguise and then he gets her to dress similar to him. As the film goes on, we learn that Morse has been to prison as well as a mental hospital. He has been watching Follows for some time and he finds her attractive. He is a lonely man who has had issues for awhile.
The state troopers are joined by the FBI. David Soul is the first agent to arrive to help. He is soon joined by Tom Atkins, who takes over the operation. They have a helicopter that is making passes as well as dogs to help track their scent.
With each passing day, the morale goes down. Kehler and Howell fear the worst as do their children. Atkins presumes her dead, but Soul and Anderson hold out faith she is alive. Follows does what she can to keep Morse from getting mad and to stay alive.
It is a race against Morse getting past the roadblock and police search area. He also becomes more desperate as the police get closer. There is a leak of information to the press, which helps Morse stay ahead of them as well as to make him even more on edge. He does have his dogs to worry about and the FBI call in the world’s best tracking dogs.
Will Morse get away with Follows? Will she be returned to her family or will she be killed by this deranged man?
I have to say that I only heard about this film due to my mother and her interest in true crime. This is being added to the horror film research, due to this being a scary situation to be in. I will admit, the film is not scary, but put yourself in her position. This film does have a lot of solid actors in it. Morse, Atkins and Soul I have seen in other films and they are very good. I really want to commend Morse for his portrayal. He was quite believable. I also thought that Follows did very well also. Anderson and Soul made a great team trying to help her. The story does seem to follow the facts. I will admit I do not know much about the truth behind this film, but that is what I am assuming.
The drawback to this film is that it was made for television and it isn’t overly exciting. This is one of those films that if you want to know the facts played out by professional actors. It doesn’t make it the most exciting by going this route though. If that is not an issue, then you will probably enjoy this one.
With that said, this film is pretty good. This film is based on a true story and from my knowledge; it is pretty close to the facts. The cast is above average for a TV movie and they do well. This film isn’t overly exciting though. If you are interested in learning more about this case or are into true crime, I would recommend giving this film a viewing.
My Rating: 6 out of 10