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One year before the story takes place, a unique supermoon event awakens a dormant gene in humans, causing them to turn into werewolves if the moonlight hits them, leading to worldwide chaos. With another supermoon event about to occur, the CDC hopes to control the situation and prevent another werewolf outbreak, with Dr. Aranda (Lou Diamond Philips) leading a team searching for a cure. The team includes Dr. Wesley Marshall (Frank Grillo) and Dr. Amy Chen (Katrina Law), who are testing a new spray-on "moon screen" treatment that shields participants from the moonlight, preventing them from turning into werewolves. The experiment goes awry, with the treatment only proving effective for an hour. After werewolves kill their colleagues, Marshall and Chen head out to cross the werewolf-infested city, hoping to reach Marshall's late brother's wife, Lucy (Ilfenesh Hadera), and daughter, Emma (Kamdynn Gary), to protect them from the hordes of attacking lycanthropes.
Mileage may vary depending on expectations, as Werewolves is the antithesis of plodding, critic-pandering horrors like Robert Eggers's Nosferatu or anything Ari Aster has directed. Without any pretensions, arthouse sensibilities or core messages, Werewolves is all about visceral thrills, and it is extremely silly, but Miller delivers the mayhem with tongue firmly planted in cheek. It is preposterous that Grillo is both a badass special forces operative and a scientist, and the "moon screen" serum preventing Marshall and Chen from turning in the moonlight for an hour at a time is a convenient plot contrivance so the actors can show their faces throughout the action scenes. Plus, the characters use a fun and varied arsenal of firearms, including a massive Gatling gun mounted to a vehicle in one memorable scene. Luckily, the actors are in tune with the material, with the superb Grillo showing once again that he deserves to lead more action movies, and it is fun to see Lou Diamond Phillips in a minor role as a respected doctor.
Although a budget figure is not available at the time of writing, Werewolves does not look cheap or nasty. Despite the bizarre insistence on lens flares, the movie looks slick and expensive, with robust production values, and Miller never uses slipshod CGI in an egregious attempt to enhance the scope. The movie's scale is small, but Miller makes the most of the resources at his disposal, and he nails the most important thing: the werewolves look amazing. They were designed by special effects maestros Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr., who also worked on several Alien films, as well as the AvP movies and 2018's The Predator. Not since Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers have we seen practical lycanthropes look this convincing, while the impactful sound design gives them unnerving growls and roars, making these creatures seem wholly real instead of cartoonish digital creations or performers covered in obvious prosthetics. Miller also uses practical blood squibs, and the sparing use of digital effects for the transformations is practically seamless, resulting in some of the most satisfying transformation scenes since An American Werewolf in London. The attack scenes are enormously satisfying, with the lycanthropes biting and ripping hapless victims to pieces, and the terrific, gory prosthetics give a strong visceral edge to these scenes. Miller even delivers a memorable werewolf-on-werewolf fight scene for the climax, which left this review grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
Werewolves is a B movie through and through, standing in stark contrast to something like Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man, which was more about characters and allegory than pure werewolf action. Even though Werewolves is primarily an action movie, there is legitimate mood and atmosphere throughout the flick, with tense moments (an unseen werewolf growling in the dark) and ominous images (a character peers out a window to see a werewolf standing silhouetted against the night sky). Admittedly, though, the movie is not perfect, as the editing is too restrictive during certain action scenes, leading to a few awkward-feeling beats, and the muzzle flashes are obviously digital whenever a character discharges a firearm (a strange misstep considering the production's otherwise excellent special effects). Additionally, even though there is some badass dialogue at times, a lot of the dialogue is cheesy and standard-order, with characters feeling the need to vocalise the obvious. Matthew Kennedy's screenplay does not do enough with the intriguing premise; like The Purge, it feels like the budget-restrictive introduction of an excellent idea ripe for further exploration in sequels. But there is still plenty to enjoy here, with Miller creating an all-in-good-fun action romp that seldom slows down and feels like a return to classic, old-school horror fun.
6.8/10
