Rather than doing a regular review roundup for January, I’m going to take a bit of a swerve. Continuing the trend from my previously posted reviews, I’m reviewing three werewolf movies. So, if you follow this blog (Or my social media posts), you know I didn’t like the new “Wolf Man” (2025) movie. That’s an understatement. But it has driven me to find an actually good werewolf movie or two from the many that have slipped me by over the years. I’ve said before there are only five werewolf movies I think are truly great. There’s a handful more that are pretty good, but most of these movies are not worth bothering with. Perhaps sometime I’ll do a top ten.

I’ve always been keen on the werewolf as a horror character. Wolves actually have a lot in common with humans. Nature has only ever created two persistence hunters, the wolf is one and humans are the other. They are the ultimate feral mirror of ourselves. But beyond that the transformation from man to wolf provides the opportunity for all kinds of metaphor. Last but not least they always provide a challenge for effects and filming. As a result, these movies are often more about what you don’t see. They tend to have a very old school horror vibe to them. So for this round up I’m looking at “Wer” (2013), “Late Phases” (2014) and “Werewolves Within” (2021).

Werewolves Within (2021)

I’m going to start of with my least favourite. “Werewolves Within” is from director Josh Ruben and writer Mishna Wolff. Wolff is clearly a fan of the genre as she is also behind the series “Wolf Like Me”. Ruben has made one previous feature film, the horror “Scare Me” (2020). This horror comedy stars Sam Richardson and Milana Vayntrub and is an adaptation of the computer game of the same name. That game is basically a variation of the Werewolf social deduction game, itself a version of the game “Mafia”. Right off the bat you can tell the focus of this isn’t really the werewolves. It’s also worth noting, that set up somewhat similar to the movie “Cry Wolf” (2005), another film that bares a striking resemblance to “Mafia”.

“Finn Wheeler” (Richardson), is a Forest ranger assigned to cover Beaverfield, a small town where the residents are divided over a pipeline. The town is populated by a bunch of colourful and somewhat bizarre characters, the sanest of which appears to be the post woman “Cecily Moore” (Vayntrub). On his first night there all the generators are taken out by what appears to be a powerful animal and one of the residents are killed. This starts a long game of insinuations and conflict between the residents. It becomes apparent one or more of them are actually werewolves and the clock is ticking to find out who.

I Accuse You!

One of the standard types of horror comedies is basically a form of fatal slapstick. That is everyone ends up killing everyone else, often by accident. This is one of those. This obviously fits with the video game. I’ve never played it, but these games always work by eliminating who you think is the werewolf (or Mafia member) and the goal of the actual werewolf is to misdirect the other players to eliminate each other. This is exactly what is happening here. The trouble is, since this is an adaptation of the game, you know this going in. It makes the set up all a bit too obvious. It also means by necessity, you don’t actually see the Werewolf until the final moments of the movie.

The biggest problem the film has though is that it is not especially funny. It’s more “Quirky” than laugh out loud funny. That gives the film some charm, but I need a bit more to my horror comedies. That aside, the movie is perhaps most similar to “The Beast Must Die” (1974). Both movies turn the werewolf story into a bit of a murder mystery, with the colourful cast constantly pointing the finger at each other. The difference is I didn’t predict the werewolf was in the first act of that movie. Ultimately, this is almost a good movie, but just fails to really stand out in any way. It is a very average horror comedy. 5/10

Late Phases/Night of the Wolf (2014)

Mostly this movie is referred to as “Late Phases”, but it is also known as “Night of the Wolf” and that appears to be it’s official release title in the US and UK. No doubt that caused a lot of confusion with the marketing. Late Phases is a better fit for the film’s plot, but it doesn’t really say “Werewolf” loudly enough, so I can see why it was changed. Anyway, this is a movie from Spanish filmmaker Adrian Garcia Bogliano and his first in English. It is written by Eric Stolze, with cinematography from Ernesto Herrera and music from Wojciech Golczewski. The film stars Nick Damici as blind retired Vietnam war veteran “Ambrose McKinley”.

Ambrose has just moved into a quiet retirement community on the edge of a forest. Despite his disability he is fiercely independent and has a shaky relationship with his son. On his first night in his new home he is attacked by some kind of beast and is only saved by his dog (Who is mortally wounded during the attack). Ambrose quickly realizes he has been attacked by a werewolf and that when the next full moon arrives he will likely be killed. He isn’t going to go down easily and spends the time until the next full moon preparing and investigating. This brings him into conflict with the other residents of the village and his own son.

Old Dogs, New Tricks

This is a fairly unique werewolf movie. It plays the mystery angle to some extent, but is more focused on it’s non-wolf protagonist. Nick Damici really does hold this film together as the grumpy vet, determined to go out fighting. The film goes with a the traditional version of the monster with a design straight out of The Howling. In practice they aren’t the best looking versions I’ve seen but I do have to give them points for a very good transformation scene. Don’t expect to see a lot of them though. They appear at the start and end of the film, but the vast majority of it is in that period in between full moons. That’s not a big negative for this film though as it gives the film time to focus on Ambrose and see what makes him tick.

Obviously a werewolf movie already requires some suspension of disbelief. This movie asks us to go a little bit further in believing that this blind veteran can fight back against them. It turns out, it’s not as much of an ask as you would think! The movie does well with it’s budget and it doesn’t mess about with the plot. The bookended werewolf scenes and the direct drive and ticking clock of the rest of the movie means it doesn’t drag. Overall, while it’s not going to break the long standing record of only five great werewolf movies, this is pretty close. A good low budget werewolf movie, just about worthy of a 6.5/10.

Wer (2013)

“Wer” comes to us from writer/director William Brent Bell in his third feature and second horror film. I’m not familiar with his work but the film “Boy” (2016) seems to have been his most successful. Alejandro Martínez provides cinematography and Brett Detar, the music. The film stars A.J. Cook with support from Simon Quarterman, Vik Sahay and Sebastian Roché. All solid TV actors that occasionally pop up in lower budget movies. I have to admit it is hard to take Vik Sahay seriously after watching him in “Chuck”, but he does a good job so that is on me.

After a horrific attack in France on a family of holidaying Americans, the authorities arrest local man Talan Gwynek (Brian Scott O’Connor). There is more than a little controversy here though since all the physical evidence suggested a vicious animal attack far beyond what a human could do. Because of this expatriate lawyer “Katherine Moore” (Cook) volunteers to take the case of his defence. Assisting her are investigator “Eric Sarin” (Sahay) and animal expert “Gavin Flemyng” (Quarterman). Fairly early on she starts to suspect this is a fit up being done by a corrupt police captain “Klaus Pistor” (Roché). However, there is definitely something strange about Gwynek….

Of Wolf And Man

This is a very rare breed of werewolf movie in that it tries to take a realistic approach to the curse. As a result the make up style is a lot closer to the original Wolf Man than the more modern “Howling” style monster or werewolves that actually turn into wolves. Here the werewolf is a human suffering a rare disease that can be both inherited and passed on through infected blood. Those infected become notably hairier on a permanent basis, but most of the time are harmless. That changes on the full moon where they gain superhuman strength and become violently feral. This movie achieves everything “Wolf Man” (2025) set out to do in re-imagining the classic version of the monster. That it achieved it twelve years prior, just goes to show how little Leigh Whannell actually brought to the table.

The plot around the beast is a bit more of a mixed bag. The individual parts all work well enough, but the film shifts gears dramatically for the final act. Once the secret is out, the rest of those plot elements don’t seem especially important. This works fine first time through, but I can’t help but feel the early acts will lead to the film dragging somewhat in repeat viewing. I also have to say, I’m not a big fan of werewolves that don’t resemble wolves in any way. While this may be the best version of that I have come across, it’s not what I am after. I guess you could call it a “Lycanthropy” movie instead of a “Werewolf” movie. Anyway, that gripe aside, the movie is pretty good and worth a strong 6/10.

Final Howl

Werewolf movies are difficult to pull off and few have ever really found the formula. So when I am able to score one of these films at a six or higher out of ten I call that a win. Indeed if I do put together my top ten, “Wer” and “Late Phases” may well make my list. I want to note too that the gap between those movies was narrow. They are both worth checking out, if you are a fan of the sub-genre. Late Phases edged ahead because it felt 100% like a werewolf movie and still managed to find something new to say. As for Werewolves Within, it’s not really much of a werewolf movie. It is though reasonably fun and certainly better than “Cry Wolf” was. All three are better than “The Beast Within” (2024) and way better than “Wolf Man” (2025). Anyway, stay tuned as I may have more werewolves for you soon.

Tonight’s movie is Australian Zombie film “Wyrmwood”. The movie is directed by Kiah Roache-Turner whose “Nekrotronic” from 2018, I saw a few years ago and was pretty impressed with (Worth checking, it’s like a B-Movie ghostbusters but very Australian). The movie stars Jay Gallagher (Who was also in Nekrotronic), Bianca Bradey and Leon Burchill as is written by Kiah and Tristan Roach-Turner.

October Review Challenge – Day 14

The movie starts after a brief lead in with some survivors telling their stories we go back to day zero of a zombie apocalypse, which appears to be tied to a meteor shower. Mechanic Barry (Gallagher) is woken up by a call from his sister who is basically stuck in her garage and pinned down by zombies. Not knowing what is going on, he hears a sound from downstairs and goes to investigate, finding a zombie in his kitchen that he just about manages to kill. He and his wife and kids head off in the car to reach his sister but part way through his wife and daughter turn zombie and he has to kill them.

Meanwhile his sister Brooke (Bradey), is rescued by some army men, but it turns out to be more of a kidnapping than a rescue. She finds herself in the back of a truck with a mobile lab and a mad scientist experimenting on her by injected zombie blood into her. The end goal is to then kill her and extract some kind of brain fluid. However, Brooke finds she can control the zombies also held in the lab and through that plots her escape.

Barry eventually finds another group of survivors. But they are stranded by a lack of fuel as all petrol has become non-flammable. However they have found that the zombies excrete a gas that is flammable and so they convert their vehicle (after beefing it up to cope with zombie attacks) to run off zombie gas. Heading out most of the survivors end up dead, but eventually Barry and Benny (Burchill) manage to catch up with the truck with his sister. This leads to the grand climax (Which I’m not dropping spoilers for).

What Makes a Good Zombie Film

The Zombie genre is a heavily over saturated one and as such can be hard to find one that stands out. That said, it’s not actually hard to make a zombie movie that stands out you just have to remember the three key ingredients: Tragedy, Dark Humour and Social Commentary. If you have one of these you aren’t going to stand out well, two of these you have a decent zombie movie, but three and you have something great.

I say tragedy instead of horror or gore because the thing that makes Zombie films dark is the inevitable loss of everything. Having to kill loved ones, running for all your worth but knowing that your pursuers will never stop and are everywhere. It is not a genre built for jump scares, gross out horror or situations that cause quick fear. It is a genre built sadness to it and a fatalism.

But that has to be balanced out by humour. Zombies are stupid, they act stupid and at their core they represent human stupidity. It’s important to recognise the insanity of the situation so a bit of humour is needed. That’s not to say it has to be a comedy. Finally and perhaps most importantly is the social commentary. That is what ties it together and what made Romero’s films stand out from the imitators. Even his bad ones nailed the social commentary. The key is the Zombies are us. You can tackle that in many different ways, but it’s what gives the genre a deeper meaning.

Wyrmwood Vs Z-Nation

So where does Wyrmwood lie? Well the social commentary isn’t really there. Instead it goes in the direction of the Z-Nation TV series, embracing the comedy but not at the expense of the despair. Like that TV series it comes up with interesting gimmicks for the zombies, in the case of Wyrmwood in how the zombies have to be used for fuel and how that only works in the day. During the night the zombies use their own “fuel” which allows them to move faster. This is a handy way of allowing both slow and fast zombies in one franchise.

The other way this is similar to Z-Nation is that though an attempt to create a zombie cure, one of the characters find they can control zombies. This is something we see evolve throughout the movie and while not the most original idea, is done quite well and is actually done as one of the more serious aspects, whereas in Z-Nation it was the primary source of comedy a lot of the time.

The loss factor is done well though. Right out the gate our lead has to kill his wife and daughter with a nail gun. He then is determined to kill himself and only brought around by remembering he needs to go rescue his sister. The movie doesn’t forget the tragedy and that is good, but as it moves on it embraces the goofy more and more and it really works for it. It reminds me of the earlier seasons of Z-Nation when it was at it’s peak. This movie has a sequel and apparently a TV series coming so we will see if they can keep up the quality or will it wane like it did with Z-Nation.

Assessment

Towards the end the acting quality drops off a little as other actors than the lead find themselves needed to express intense emotion and don’t really pull it off. But the film does pull off some fun set pieces and a lot of nice visuals. There is a lot of things here done because they are cool, but it’s the kind of film that can get away with that as it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The emergence of the “Final Boss” of the film seemed a little out of nowhere, but I guess they needed a fight to feel a bit more personal and it did achieve that.

The lack of any real social commentary apart from a vague “Greater good Vs individual rights” thing stops this from elevating itself to one of the great zombie films but it is still a lot more fun then you would expect from a random zombie movie from an (At that point) unknown director on a shoestring budget ($160,000… seriously that was the whole production budget).

Conclusion

I have nothing but praise for what they managed to do with the resources they had and between this and Nekrotronic I’m definitely a fan of the director. However, I can’t give more points for being done with little resources, I have to be objective and so this is a strong 6/10. With a bit more time, a bit better actors and a bit more depth this could have been pushing a 7. It’s not there, but it is well worth checking out.

Tag: 2014

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