Werewolves: There Wolves! And There! Oh, and Another Over There!

By Chris Knight

Rating: C
Frank Grillo is a busy, indiscriminate actor, always ready to take on a small role in a big film (Avengers: Endgame, Zero Dark Thirty) or a big role in a small one; 2020’s Boss Level is excellent if you’ve ever wondered what Groundhog Day would look like as an action movie.
Werewolves is of the small-movie variety, and I wish it were better. Alas, it’s not quite stupid enough to be a guilty pleasure, and not quite good enough to be an innocent one.

Grillo plays Wesley, a molecular biologist who’s also handy with a gun. The action takes place on the night of a supermoon, a rather boring astronomical phenomenon in which the full moon is at its perigee, and thus looks a tiny bit bigger than usual. Woo.
Ah, but what if this were a “special” supermoon (that’s as technical as the movie gets), one that turns anyone caught in its light into a homicidal werewolf until dawn? That’s the premise of Werewolves.

A rush of exposition explains that it’s happened once before, so people are ready for it this time, locking themselves indoors and closing the curtains. (Grillo also starred in The Purge: Anarchy, don’t you know.)
Scientists have developed a special “moonscreen” that protects wearers from the lunar rays, but only for an hour at a time, so there’s always a ticking clock. There’s also always a surplus of dramatic lens flares, explosive jump cuts, unexpected final werewolves, and a whole lot of unnecessary talking.

“Don’t slow down,” someone says as their car barrels through werewolf infested streets. The lone child in the movie gets told multiple times to “hide in here with your eyes closed and don’t come out.” (She does, the brat.)

And then there’s my favourite, the laboratory speaker system that announces, “full lockdown,” then follows it up with “no one can enter or leave,” and then for good measure: “All exit points sealed.”
Wesley’s loyalties are divided. We first meet him werewolf-proofing the house of his sister-in-law Lucy (Ilfenesh Hadera) in advance of the full moon, and admonishing his survivalist neighbour to be careful where he engages in target practice. He’d like to stay and protect Lucy (her husband died on the previous supermoon) but he has to get to the lab, where he and Dr. Amy Chen (Katrina Law) wind up bringing guns to a wolf fight.
The movie uses mostly practical effects for its creatures, but that ends up reminding us that An American Werewolf in London did an equally good job more than 40 years ago. (Although it did only have to make one werewolf.) But we’re also reminded of Alien and Jurassic Park, courtesy of far too many stolen shots to chalk it up to homage.

Werewolves most resembles the kind of creatures-attack feature that would have once gone straight to video, and it’s a surprise to see it being released in theatres. Released? I think it escaped!
Werewolves. Directed by Steven C. Miller. Starring Frank Grillo, Katrina Law, and Ilfenesh Hadera. Opens in theatres, Friday, Dec. 6.