A brief review from Russ Burlingame:
Werewolves is a ton of fun. It’s full of great performances, impressive creature effects, and great editing that really sells the sense of unease and dread that permeates the movie.
Frank Grillo is one of those actors who is just…never bad. He looks a certain way, and that can sometimes lead to jokes — like the ones we made about him being a molecular biologist in this — but he’s also able to disappear into a role in a way that makes it convincing to anyone not already laughing at the premise.
The rest of the cast is solid, with an especially human performance from Ilfenesh Hadera (which gives me incentive to finally check out Godfather of Harlem). Katrina Law, who tends to elevate everything she shows up in, also has a role in this one, and she’s great (if a little under-utilized, because she shares basically every scene with Grillo and he owns the screen).
I was particularly impressed by director Steven C. Miller’s editing and some of the shot choices. We get into that in more depth in the episode, so I’ll leave it at that, but my 4-star review is about as high as I’m likely to give a werewolf movie.
A brief review from Zach D Roberts:
When I first saw this trailer a couple months ago on twitter, I was, to put it simply - PUMPED. The trailer was incredible and gahdamn, the film did not disappoint.
One of my all time favorite horror films is Dog Soldiers, which if you haven’t seen it’s time to rectify that (PlutoTV and Peacock). Werewolves is 100% playing at that level. It’s indy film that doesn’t take itself totally serious but at the same time can be taken seriously.
As Russ and I discuss in the podcast, the film has some incredible editing and camera work, especially during one of the opening attack scenes that has multiple werewolf changes and several brutal killings. At the same time cutting back to peoples homes who are being affected by werewolf attacks.
Werewolves has a teasing use of the jumpscare. Regularly the camera and editing imply that the creature will be “right behind him” but it will in fact just crash through a wall or something just as ridiculous. As I keep coming back to, this film is a fuck load of fun. It doesn’t hurt that Director Steven C. Miller (Silent Night and Escape Plan 2) has serious action chops, working with Bruce Willis, Sly Stallone and many others… and it shows here.
The star of the film, Frank Grillo, who also executive produces, looks like he’s having a ball in this film playing a scientist trying to solve the problem of the yearly werewolf and then shifting right over to mowing werewolves down with a Gatling gun mounted on the back of a pickup truck.
For me this is a 5 out of 5. I wasn’t expecting art from a werewolf film but got some great cinematography, editing but most of all I had the most fun in a movie theatre I’ve had all year.
Werewolves (2024) released December 6th, 2024
Starring: Frank Grillo, Katrina Law, Ilfenesh Hadera, James Michael Cummings, and Lou Diamond Phillips.
Directed by Steven C. Miller
Written by Matthew Kennedy
Produced by Myles Nestel, Craig Chapman, Steven C. Miller, James Michael Cummings
Imdb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15041836/reference/
letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/werewolves-2024/
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