'Werewolves' Salivates Action Movie Cheese and Monster Mayhem [Review]

​Packs of practical werewolves. Action-packed carnage. Grisly gore. Director Steven C. Miller (Silent Night, 2012) delivers it all with Werewolves, a testosterone-fueled melding of The Purge and Dog Soldiers that howls at the moon and puffs its chest like a mad-dog fighter in the ring. It has the energy of a rabid wolf, salivating fury and violence. Sure, the performances are lackluster, the one-liners eye-rolling and the plotlines melodramatic, but that’s all part of the territory in this entertaining beast of a film that brings to life those most outrageous adolescent fantasies of monster mayhem that many of us dreamt up as kids.
 
One year ago, a super moon transformed over a billion people around the world into werewolves after being touched by its light. Now, another super moon is fast approaching. Desperate to prevent more tragedy, Wesley (Frank Grillo), the head of a global rapid response team with the CDC, is working on a cure that prevents the change. But when all goes wrong during tests on the night of the big event, he and biologist Amy (Katrina Law) find themselves fighting through a city of monsters in an attempt to reach Wesley’s family before the wolves come knocking at the door.
 
Miller wears his influences on his sleeve with Werewolves, fully welcoming comparisons to The Purge. We meet Wesley in the midst of transforming his sister-in-law Lucy’s (Ilfenesh Hadera) home into the most secure fortress Home Depot can provide (not very). Eye-catching production design places ominous reminders of the oncoming werewolf apocalypse all over town. Some of those who changed the last time look forward to it again, craving the night-long hunt. And then of course there’s the casting of Grillo, a veteran of The Purge franchise. Taking place over less than twenty-four hours, there’s a tense sense of worry that permeates throughout the first act as our cast prepares for the inevitable bloodshed, an invisible countdown to a night of terror. All that’s missing is the annual announcement of the super moon commencing…and the heavy political themes baked into the flesh of those films that Werewolves tears from.

Writer Matthew Kennedy’s script invokes suggestions of the werewolf plague as comparable to our own experiences with Covid, along with scraps of commentary on the psychological disease that has overtaken gun nut conservatives such as Cody who believe it’s their job to “keep America safe” when they are in fact the problem. None of it amounts to much of anything, but Werewolves isn’t selling itself as a thought-provoking creature feature. It knows what it is and what it is is a hairy ball of cheese coated in machismo. We’re talking about a film where characters use “moon-screen” spray to block moonlight from their skin. Where military bros paint their faces in the colors of the American flag and slap “wolf killer” on their camo armor. Where there are enough lens flares to make J.J. Abrams get down on his knees and weep. Strobe lights populate so much of the film that it’s like walking through a Universal Halloween Horror Nights house, where the fun is all that matters and that’s exactly what this is: A thrill ride for werewolf lovers.
 
Ask myself or anyone else who prefers werewolves over vampires (they’re cooler and you know it), and we’ll tell you the most important element of any werewolf movie is the appearance of the monsters themselves. In that regard, Werewolves knocks it out of the park and past the damn moon. The creature effects here are jaw-dropping. They recall the sort of magic Jim Henson’s Creature Shop worked on films such as TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze, but meaner and nastier. Werewolves haven’t looked this good since the Underworld films. What’s more, Miller’s movie takes the opportunity to present a variety of lycanthropes, including a punk wolf, mohawk and all. Does it make sense that the punk wolf retains its signature hairdo when no others do? Nope! But who cares? He looks great and this isn’t the kind of film worried about applying logic. The film’s called Werewolves and werewolves are what you get. Faces are ripped off. Spines are exposed. And there’s even a werewolf fight to the death! Can’t ask for more than that. The CG transformations certainly leave a lot to be desired, especially next to otherwise impressive creature suits, but Miller offers up plenty of lycanthrope carnage to satiate audience appetites.
 
Werewolves doesn’t deliver anything more or less than what it promises; a fun, action-packed werewolf movie with Frank Grillo spouting one-liners like “bite me”. Leave any expectations for well-developed characters or a gripping story at the door. That’s not this film. What Miller delivers is a plain and simple werewolf movie with a comic book aesthetic that emphasizes fun over substance and gives audiences exactly what they came for…badass werewolves wreaking bloody havoc.

Werewolves howls into theaters December 6th from Briarcliff Entertainment. 

By Matt Konopka