The tagline for Werewolves didn’t need to be anything more “Frank Grillo Werewolf Movie” because as fans of Action’s B-Movie Megastar, that’s all we needed to know. You like Frank Grillo? You like Werewolves? Well good news, fellow Venn Diagram movie fan, we’re getting it all in Steven C. Miller’s Werewolves!Â
Now I know we’re all worried about Climate Change, but have any of us taking a second to consider that while the Earth has us looking to the right, the Moon is coming in for the kill to the left?! That’s essentially the premise of Werewolves. In the near future, a cataclysmic event is brewing that threatens life as we know it. Thanks to a Supernatural Super Blood Moon, anyone caught under the silver glow of that big rock in the sky is suddenly transformed into a snarling beast. And in an effort to avoid being ripped to shreds, the inhabitants of earth are barricading themselves indoors, Purge style, to protect against moonlight and moon monsters.Â
““A real triple threat of bullet casing, bloodied knuckles, and big bad wolves.”
Frank Grillo plays Dr. Wesley Marshall, a former military specialist (and also somehow a legit scientist??) who has done everything he can to protect his late brother’s wife Lucy (Ilfenesh Hadera) and her daughter Emma (Kamdynn Gary). He barricades their windows, installs up an electric fence perimeter, and gives them both a somewhat-comforting-but-mostly-alarming pep talk about how to survive the night, before leaving to take apart in Hail Mary lab test with Lou Diamond Philips’ Dr. Aranda to cure this lycanthropy contagion before it’s too late! *deep breath* The experiment looks promising at first but surprise-surprise the beast is release and werewolves descend on the city for all-out war of fur and fury.Â
Directed by Steven C. Miller (Silent Night, 2012) from a screenplay by Matthew Kennedy (Inheritance), Werewolves is exactly what you think it is. And if you’re in the right mood, exactly what you’re hoping it might be. It really feels like a Purge movie, but with werewolves, and not just because Frank Grillo is mean mugging and spitting one-liners across the entire picture. When Grillo & Co are forced to abandon their project, it becomes a fight for survival across the city to rescue his family. Meanwhile, his sister-in-law and her daughter are left to fend off a growing gang of snarling intruders that are slowly breaking through the defenses.Â
“Did I mention there’s a werewolf wearing a leather jacket??!?”
There’s chaos in the streets as military men and vigilantes take the opportunity to gun down wave after wave of werewolves, some of them still wearing earrings and leather jackets!!! Of course, only Frank Grillo and his partner are smart enough and strong enough to make it out alive, duh. And the whole bloody affair culminates in the fist fight of the century outside of Lucy’s house. It’s action-packed nonsense, coming just in time to help you hoorah the holiday blues away.Â
Steven C. Miller’s Werewolves isn’t trying to reinvent the werewolf wheel, but it doesn’t disappoint if all you’re looking for is some good dumb fun. Grillo is doing his thing, and the werewolf design is great (did I mention there’s a werewolf wearing a leather jacket??!?). By no means the smartest and most coherent movie of the year but a real triple threat of bullet casing, bloodied knuckles, and big bad wolves.Â
“Good Dumb Fun”
Werewolves hits theatres Dec 6th! Let us know what you thought of this action-packed Purge-style Werewolf flick on social media and over in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord.
