On December 12, theaters saw the release of the action-horror movie «Werewolves» starring Frank Grillo in the leading role. The film was directed by Steven C. Miller, who has spent his entire career in low-budget B-category movies like «First Kill» (2017) with Bruce Willis or «Escape Plan 2» (2018) with Sylvester Stallone. Below, we dive into what this new flick has to offer.
Genre action, horror
Director Steven C. Miller
Cast Frank Grillo, Katrina Law, Ilfenesh Hadera, James Michael Cummings, Lou Diamond Phillips, James Caison, Ian Whyte
Premiere theaters
Release Year 2024
Website IMDb
A year ago because of a supermoon, people suddenly started exhibiting a superpower — everyone affected by the «magical» moonlight turned into a bloodthirsty, slobbery werewolf. This year, humanity, seasoned by bitter apocalyptic experience, is trying to find a cure for the deadly mutation and is bracing itself for the bloody night that is inevitably approaching.
Among the developers of the miracle vaccine is the biologist Wesley Marshall — a muscular guy in a pristine McClane-style tank top, who is also trying to turn his deceased brother’s wife’s and niece’s home into an impregnable fortress. When the testing of the drug doesn’t go as planned, and the streets are swarmed with hairy and growling beasts, the brave Wesley is ready to fight the werewolves and protect those he cares about.
From «Dog Soldiers», here we have the warlike monsters trying to break into the house and carry out a bloody massacre. From «The Purge», the attempt to survive a fierce night, relying on the motto «my home — my fortress», while the whole surrounding world goes off the rails and literally drowns in blood.
And that’s not to mention the surname of the main character, which clearly hints at «Dogs» director Neil Marshall, and the presence in the second «Purge» of Frank Grillo. The latter, it seems, has tasted the same youth elixir as Tom Cruise, albeit in much more modest cinema.
Despite the sources of inspiration, in «Werewolves», there’s no trace of their tension and sense of desperation. Instead, it’s a collection of poorly staged and filmed local skirmishes with a pack of werewolves, multiplied by sheer absurdity and narrative helplessness.
The very premise of the appearance of werewolves looks, to put it mildly, dubious and superficial: the audience is introduced to the events, limited to a couple of explanatory lines in the titles at the beginning. Well, heck with it — the well-developed sci-fi component, which would look justified in a movie where a toothy creature bites off an extra’s face — is clearly not mandatory. However, to turn a potentially scary, dynamic, and spectacular film into something not just senseless, but also endlessly boring — takes quite an effort.
It’s impossible not to «empathize» with the truly fantastic episodes of encounters between werewolves and humans, where the lack of budget is masked by annoying epileptic flickering of lights in almost every action scene. Meanwhile, on the path of the fearless hero, only stupid werewolves appear, who either throw themselves under the car or impale themselves on metal fence posts, like kebabs on a skewer.
What remains in the end? The first third, in the best traditions of the unfortunate Umbrella corporation, shows us the failed lab experiments, the predictable result of which already induces boredom. Later, we get the senseless running around of Grillo’s character and his combat partner directly on the city streets. But there, where the plot could have benefitted from expanding the scope of the small-town apocalypse, we get a few monotonous, uninspired skirmishes of opposing sides.
In a few episodes, a minor character appears, doubling as a cosplayer of Wolverine. And so the entire «Werewolves» tries to present itself as a full-fledged movie with cool werewolves, but it more resembles a cheap play by a second-rate drama club.