Let's get something straight. This is a horror-thriller aimed at a teenagers, not a masterwork of suspense for the delectation of grey and greying cynics. Critics will gleefully dip their quills in cyanide anyway.

Cry Wolf came into being after director Wadlow and producer Beau Bauman won the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival, so expectations were always going to be higher than the budget.

However, Bauman hands potential detractors plenty of rope with ill-advised statements like "...ours is not a typical teen thriller; it's driven by smarter characters that don't do obviously stupid things." Ironic, given that his movie is about the perils of telling fibs...

Shortly after a female pupil is murdered in nearby woods, trouble-magnet Owen (the unconvincing Morris) arrives at Westlake Prep, a boarding school for the obnoxious offspring of the rich and disinterested.

He is initiated into a clique led by the alluring yet oddly named Dodger (Booth). This involves playing a low-stakes game of lies with her friends, who all feature in the high-school stereotypes handbook.

The game is incredibly boring and none of the players appear particularly interested, but no matter. They decide to spice things up by making up the identity of the student killer, calling him 'The Wolf' and emailing his MO to the entire campus.

The rumour spreads like wildfire until they are rumbled, whereupon cool-yet-somehow-not teacher Rick (Bon Jovi) gives Owen a lecture on the consequences of lying.

But someone is determined to keep the ruse going, and soon the whole liars are worriedly looking over their shoulders in fear of the orange-masked madman.

While shackled by a youth-friendly certificate, Wadlow produces the odd tense moment and visual flourish but fails to sustain suspense for any length of time. Too often he resorts to crying wolf himself; red herrings abound (check out the janitor - straight out of Scooby Doo).

Being the latest in a long line of daft and clichéd Scream knock-offs, Cry Wolf is hardly the finest example of the genre. But as a Friday night time-waster, teenagers could do a lot worse. Honest!

Elliott Noble