Zombie, vampire, and the paranormal have dominated the horror genre for the last two decades, while werewolf film and literature have only come out of the den for a quick stroll in the forest. Productions such as Wolf Hollow and Wer along with terrific fur filled books Such Sharp Teeth and What Big Teeth have entertained the Horror-Nation, but big releases have shunned the hairy sub-genre. Director Steven C. Miller, known for pumping out high-octane thrills by the second film, attempts to bring back howls into the night with Werewolves. With a tremendously original plot and the iconic Lou Diamond Philips on board, Werewolves craves to bring the beloved creatures back into the moonlight.
A rare supermoon event triggers DNA inside a billion humans, causing the species to turn into blood thirsty werewolves. A year later, the same moon is about to sparkle once again onto the planet. In a race against time and an effort to save the human race, an elite team of scientists, led by Dr. Aranda (Lou Diamond Philips,) create a spray that will prevent the moonlight from triggering the transformation. While confident, the team can only put this cure into testing on the night of the supermoon return. Wesley (Frank Grillo), an elite soldier and biologist, is torn between protecting what remains of his family and assisting the team on finding a cure. Once dusk falls upon the region, the ultimate battle of survival begins against the ultimate apex predators.
Zack Snyder sparked a cultural zombie phenomenon with his 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. No such fire revolution will come from the entertaining but tame Werewolves. The film is told instead of show from the opening credits until the decent final battle. While fur fans would have loved to see a primary sequence featuring the werewolf apocalypse, only a brief worded description is given before the viewer is taken on a long dialogue driven narrative. Miller throws in enough beast action to make the film watchable, but the fur fights are few and too far between. Perhaps budget constraints hindered this golden-brown opportunity, but there are no excuses for the tremendously bland script from scribe Matthew Kennedy. An Oscar caliber screenplay was never expected for a fun romp creature feature, but Kennedy’s words are so wooden the audience might get splinters in their ears. Grillo and the rest of the cast do a professional job driving the mundane plot while fans will cherish the always encompassing Philips. The boxes are checked enough to warrant a view of the film. Good transformation scene? Check. Good creature designs? Check. Good premise? Check. Still, the film attempts to build entirely too many empathetic emotions instead of just being a rip-roaring monster mash. A few tense set pieces coupled with several good kills only exacerbate what could have been. Werewolves do have fangs, but those canines are filed down to the point where the audience will get a nasty nip instead of the full bite they crave.
Scream Score: 7.4/10