REVIEWED - CRY WOLFTHE latest addition to the US teen horror genre, Cry Wolf opens on a scene-setting prologue that doubles as a cautionary tale for mobile phone users. Wearing the ski mask that appears to be obligatory headgear for horror movie villains, a killer is chasing a young woman through darkest woodland. To make it easier to track her down, the killer dials her number and the ringtone reveals her location.

The story cuts to an upmarket redbrick prep school populated by a calculated ethnic mix of mostly bored rich kids with barely a passing interest in their studies. They amuse themselves by playing games of lies and deception organised by Dodger (Lindy Booth), a student who claims to have been so named because her mother is a Dickens scholar. A mutual attraction develops between her and a new boarder, Owen (Julian Morris), an English teen who's on probation, having been expelled from his last school.

Together they get involved in an e-mail scheme to convince their fellow students that the killer from the opening sequence is planning to strike on campus, but anyone familiar with the fable that gives Cry Wolf its title will suspect what to expect. That slender concept is awash with red herrings and elongated to a protracted denouement that is neither surprising nor satisfying, and crucially short on tension.

In the only substantial adult role, Jon Bon Jovi dons glasses to play a journalism lecturer. First-time writer-director Jeff Wadlow made the film with the $1 million prize he won in a screenplay contest sponsored by Chrysler, and yes, there is product placement.