Werewolves (2024) Review: A Straightforward B-Movie Action-Horror That Lacks Bite
The otherwise generically titled Werewolves boasts an intriguing B-movie storytelling hook: A supermoon phenomenon triggers an unusual global event, which affects over a billion people and transforms them into lycanthropes for a single night. According to Dr Aranda (Lou Diamond Phillips) right from the opening scene, the supermoon already took place last year and it is set to happen again. But the doctor who leads the CDC team including Wesley (Frank Grillo) and Amy (Katrina Law) has been working around the clock to create an antidote, resulting in a spray-like substance known as “moonscreen”.
To determine whether the antidote will work as intended, they have a few volunteers agree for the experiment in the lab and if you are familiar enough with this kind of genre movie, you know it’s not going to end well. The story also focuses on Wesley’s sister-in-law Lucy (Ilfenesh Hadera), whose husband died on the previous supermoon. Wesley has been looking after her and his little niece Emma (Kamdynn Gary) ever since but that night, he has to leave the house to join the CDC operation. Before the nightfall, Wesley already helped barricade the house, which instantly reminds me of The Purge.
So, when the experiment goes wrong and body counts start piling up after werewolves violently attack everyone on sight, Wesley and Amy try their best to stay alive. The movie alternates between the two’s survival and Lucy and Emma back home with director Steven C. Miller (2012’s Silent Night, 2018’s Escape Plan 2: Hades), working from Matthew Kennedy’s screenplay plays it straight. So, I was expecting a 90-minute fun, no-holds-barred throwback to the werewolf genre with enough blood, gore and graphic violence. The good news is that Miller does fulfil the genre criteria but only to a certain extent while he deserves credit for blending practical effects and CGI for the werewolf transformations.
Not to mention he embraces the absurdity of its supermoon-can-turned-human-into-werewolves premise. Frank Grillo is no stranger to playing a brooding, no-nonsense tough guy and no doubt he’s the right man for such a genre movie. Then, there’s Ilfenesh Hadera, best known for her role in the big-screen update of Baywatch, who acquits herself as a stay-at-home widow getting ready to face her fear once the supermoon takes place.
And yet, Werewolves remains a missed opportunity due to Miller’s largely pedestrian direction. The gore and violence lack the much-needed visceral flair while the story meanders a lot with surprisingly lacklustre stakes, especially given the otherwise potential werewolf genre crosses with The Purge-like surviving-the-night thriller. The action scenes are nothing more than your predominantly standard run-and-hide, shoot-to-kill moments.
The werewolf transformations look acceptable for a movie with a small budget but nothing spectacular — just don’t expect The Howling or An American Werewolf in London level, still two of the prime examples of giving us frighteningly convincing werewolf transformations made practical. Speaking of the budget and given its limitations, Miller’s decision to set a significant portion of the movie on the abandoned streets is rather ill-advised. This is especially true since only a few werewolves are terrorising the streets, making me wonder why make it awkwardly small-scale in an open area and should have settled for a confined space instead.
And what’s with the overused lens flare throughout the movie? It’s downright annoying to the point I figure J.J. Abrams somehow sneaked into the movie set and whispered in Miller’s ear: “You need lens flare. Lots and lots of it“. Then, there’s the climactic third act which I thought Miller might save the best for the last, only to be disappointed with a limp finale. Frankly, there’s so much potential in Werewolves to become a cult classic.
