Humanity is about to discover that its bite is far worse than its bark in this action horror. One year ago, a supermoon event triggered a global outbreak, transforming anyone exposed to moonlight into bloodthirsty werewolves for just one night. Now, as the next supermoon rises, former marine and Global Rapid Response Team Leader Wesley Marshall (Frank Grillo) teams up with scientists Dr. Aranda (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Dr. Amy Chen (Katrina Law) to find a cure before humanity is lost. However, as chaos and carnage unfold, Marshall must fight off killer beasts and risk everything to protect his family.
Steven C. Miller (Line of Duty) first announced a project in which Frank Grillo (The Grey) fought practical werewolves quite some time ago. Back then, the film was called Year 2 and it piqued the interest of both horror and action fans alike. Not since the magnificent Dog Soldiers has a director successfully combined decent looking non-CGI lycanthropes with balls to the wall action and there was a lot of pressure on Miller's shoulders to deliver.
Within the first few minutes of Werewolves, Miller allays any fear, showing the script (written by Matthew Kennedy) is in safe hands. The transformation scene inside the military facility alone is simply fantastic and one of the best committed to screen for a long time. Werewolves are a particularly difficult beast to get right and horror fans can be brutal when they don't rate the effects. Thanks to the skills of Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. (the duo behind Prey's predator) these creatures look really good and more importantly, large, scary and badass. You really would not want to meet one of these things, supermoon or regular moon. So what if some are semi-clothed and others not, just enjoy the carnage unfolding.
Grillo is no stranger to genre movies having starred in several including two instalments of The Purge franchise which is fitting as many have labelled Werewolves as ‘The Purge meets Dog Soldiers'. Miller is a long-time mega fan of Neil Marshall's 2002 classic and it's fair to say this is his homage to a sub-genre he loves. Whilst Grillo is without a doubt the standout talent in this film, he is very well supported by Katrina Law and Ilfenesh Hadera (Baywatch). He also has some wonderfully tender scenes with his on-screen niece Kamdynn Gary (Prey) who is a sweetheart.
It is imperative to remember when watching any genre film with this sort of budget that filmmakers simply have to cut corners. Werewolves did not have Hollywood megabucks thrown at it and at times that is more than evident. It means the crew had to get creative with some things shown off-screen. Viewers simply have to accept the constraints the cast and crew would have faced. Will some audiences come away wishing there had been more Grillo one-on-one werewolf fights with our hunky hero tearing up the streets like a one-man lycanthrope killing machine? Highly likely but hey, maybe if Miller makes a sequel then there will be more ‘Spoon boxing a werewolf and beating it with a frying pan' type bust-ups a la Dog Soldiers.
We can but hope. Until then, if you want to see a great werewolf action movie resplendent with top-notch practical FX and gallons of blood then look no further.
Werewolves is available on Digital Platforms 13 January and DVD 3 February. Distributed by Signature Entertainment
