Werewolves review
A full-on, full moon feature. A movie specifically designed for this monthly column.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Werewolves
Directed by Steven C. Miller
Written by Matthew Kennedy
Starring Frank Grillo and Katrina Law
Werewolves Review
Normally this review of Werewolves would have been published a week ago to coincide with the film’s release in theaters. It was held back for the full moon for a very specific reason. Since we began running Full Moon Features back in October of 2022, Werewolves is the most Full Moon Feature movie that has been released into the wild. It was (no pun intended…you’ll get that in a minute) designed in a lab for this column. It’s big, loud, dumb…and, in large part because of those things, fun.
Opening text informs us that a supermoon turned everyone exposed to the moonlight into a werewolf. It was a devastating event…leaving millions of people dead. One year later, the supermoon has returned. There’s obviously more plot than this in Werewolves…but ask yourself, does there need to be? As a werewolf movie aficionado…that is the greatest plot in the history of film. The movie…maybe not. But it does the most important thing a werewolf movie has to do. It cares about werewolves.
Frank Grillo stars as Wes Marshall. He’s a scientist working on a cure that will allow people to withstand the moonlight. He’s also a badass ex-military man who is tasked with protecting his late-brother’s family. Because of course he is. Werewolves is a capital B-movie. It’s cheesy in all the right ways. Grillo is an inspired choice for the lead given that much of Werewolves plays out like an entry in The Purge series…only with werewolves. It’s hard to shake the comparison while watching Grillo and fellow scientist Amy Chen (Katrina Law) make their way through a town full of bloodthirsty killers.
It’s a pretty good Purge movie, to be fair. And a real good werewolf movie. The wolves themselves look great. A lot of Dog Soldiers design sneaks in there. Tall, lanky creatures. Transformations are good too. There’s a bit too much CGI going on…but it looks strong for the most part. Pracitcal elements help them along.
One area where Werewolves stumbles is setting its rules. Everyone who touches moonlight turns…great. Simple and easy to follow. How these wolves die, on the other hand, seems to be a much looser prospect. Forget the silver bullets…enough regular ones will put these creatures down. Decapitation will do the trick as well. Which makes for a fun scene…but is a bit strange for a movie that puts as much care into crafting an original werewolf story. Silver bullets are classic, after all.
Wes and Amy are able to move through the moonlight because the cure they have developed works. It comes with a timer, however. Once the effectiveness wears off…reapply the cure or get out of the moonlight. There is plenty of violence to be had on the road home for Wes. A pack of masked werewolf hunters, concealing themselves from the moonlight, are out to destroy every wolf they can find. There’s a brief ethical debate about the fact that these are human beings who are hours away from returning to their true form…but these aren’t the types of people who will listen to that kind of thing.
Among the rabid for wolf hide sect is a neighbor of Lucy (Wes’s sister-in-law, played by Ilfenesh Hadera). Cody (James Michael Cummings) is a stereotypical gun-toting tough guy. Happy to shoot anything that moves…and hilariously incapable of doing so. He puts on his warpaint and his bulletproof vest…and is immediately felled by a werewolf. He can be found the rest of the night trying to break into Lucy’s home. He’s easily distinguished due to his wolf form maintaining the face paint and, yes, vest. Like I said, pure B-movie cheese.
The Wes part of the story involves him trying to make his way back to Lucy to protect them from the werewolf apocalypse. Lucy, meanwhile, is trapped in a more traditional horror story. Her house is boarded up. An electrified fence surrounds the perimeter. Things go sideways, as you’d expect. Lucy must defend her home and protect her daughter Emma (Kamdynn Gary) from the impending werewolf attack.
There’s enough going on in Werewolves to keep you distracted from how silly the whole thing is. It looks better than most B-movies…which helps too. The truth is that Werewolves revels in its B-movie nature. And it’s better for it. Big, dumb, loud…those don’t have to be negatives. When they’re handled with care, and with a love of werewolves…they aren’t. Movies like this are easy to dismiss. If you enjoy werewolf movies…you shouldn’t.
Scare Value
Is Werewolves a great movie? No. Is it a great Full Moon Feature? Oh yeah. Committed actors, a great look, enough action and suspense…that’s all good and well. Most importantly…this movie loves werewolves. And we love werewolves. As a result, despite some B-movie cheese (or, perhaps, because of it) we love Werewolves.
3/5
Werewolves Link
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