In the wild, the only law is survival.
Daughter of the Wolf (2019) is a wintry action thriller that follows Clair Hamilton, a former military specialist and grieving mother whose teenage son is kidnapped by a rugged, backwoods militia. Set against the icy backdrop of the Canadian wilderness, the film becomes a cold, desperate chase where nature is as much a threat as the enemies holding her child.
Clair, played with steely conviction by Gina Carano, doesn’t wait for the authorities. With combat training, survival instincts, and fierce maternal drive, she takes off into the mountains, hunting down the kidnappers one by one. But the group’s leader, Father, played by Richard Dreyfuss, is far more cunning and delusional than expected — seeing himself as a prophet of purity, hardened by the wild.
As Clair closes in, she’s forced into violent confrontations and harsh moral choices. She also forms a tense alliance with one of the kidnappers, a young man who begins to question his loyalty. With wolves tracking from the shadows and betrayal waiting at every turn, Clair must outfight both man and nature to rescue her son.
The film blends elements of survival thriller, action drama, and wilderness horror. It doesn’t rely on spectacle but on raw tension: icy rivers, snowy cliffs, close-quarters combat, and long silences filled with threat. The cinematography uses the remote setting to amplify isolation, while the sound design lets the environment breathe — wind, creaking trees, and distant howls remind us she’s always being watched.
While the plot follows familiar beats — lone parent, ticking clock, shadowy captors — Daughter of the Wolf adds texture through its bleak setting and quiet emotional undercurrents. Clair isn’t just a soldier or a mother — she’s someone confronting personal guilt, loss, and rage in every foot of snow she crosses.
Critics noted the pacing could drag and the villain was occasionally overplayed, but Carano’s physicality and the stark survival aesthetic kept tension high.
It’s not about saving the world. It’s about saving one child. And in that narrow, frozen focus, the film finds its primal heart.
