Daniel Fernandez, Frank Grillo, horror, James Michael Cummings, Kamdynn Gary, Katrina Law, lfenesh Hadera, Lou Diamond Phillips, movies, reviews, Steven C. Miller, Werewolves
December 6, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Steven C. Miller
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Werewolves” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A special government team of werewolf hunters fight werewolves during a werewolf plague.
Culture Audience: “Werewolves” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching mindless horror movies.
“Werewolves” is a horror flick that is neither scary nor interesting. The visual effects and makeup are tacky and look like amateur cosplay. This flop movie is just noisy repetition of bad acting and stupid dialogue in showing humans versus werewolves.
Directed by Steven C. Miller and written by Matthew Kennedy, “Werewolves” is a movie that sets itself up for failure from the very beginning, when a caption in the movie’s opening scene gives a brief backstory and a summary of what’s supposed to happen during the course of the movie: “One year ago, a supermoon triggered a global event. Over a billion people were affected and transformed into werewolves overnight. Tonight, the supermoon returns.”
No explanation is given for why over a billion people were transformed into werewolves overnight but the rest of the world’s population was not transformed. At least with most other werewolf movies, there’s a reasonable explanation for why people turn into werewolves, such as getting bitten by a werewolf, a scentific experiment gone wrong, or being born that way. And other werewolf movies are smart enough to have the werewolf problem contained enough where the “hero” main characters can realistically do battle against any werewolves that come their way.
With “Werewolves,” viewers are supposed to believe that a billion people can turn into werewolves because of “supermoon.” That’s not a global event. That’s an apocalypse. And it’s sloppy screenwriting. And this “supermoon” is supposed to happen again, which means millions more people will turn into werewolves, right? Wrong.
“Werewolves” contradicts the global event/werewolf apocalypse that’s supposed to happen during a supermoon. Instead, there are only about 10 werewolves seen in the entire movie. Translation: “Werewolves” over-promised a werewolf apocalypse plot but didn’t have the budget for it and instead has less werewolves than the average dog kennel.
“Werewolves” takes place in an unnamed U.S. city and was filmed in Puerto Rico and Los Angeles. You’d think that with over a billion people becoming werewolves, there would be lockdowns and signs of destroyed areas. That’s not what you see in “Werewolves.”
“Werewolves” shows that everything looks relatively normal in this unnamed city, and people’s lifestyles have barely changed. What is the U.S. government’s response to this impending supermoon? Bringing out thousands of armed military personnel to fight the werewolves? No.
Instead, there’s a scene of a research scientist named Dr. Aranda (played by Lou Diamond Phillips) holding a press conference to announce that less than a dozen people will be on the front lines for this massive attack of the werewolves as the “global rapid response team.” Let that sink in for a minute. Considering the millions of trained military personnel in the world, the people who are going to “save the world” are this small motley crew chosen by some random scientist. The U.S. president is nowhere in sight during this awful movie.
The global rapid response team leader is Wesley Marshall (played by Frank Grillo), a stereotypical muscular and macho type. Evan Radcliffe (played by Daniel Fernandez) is Wesley’s second-in-command. Another sidekick is Amy Chen (played by Katrina Law), a scientist who studies lupines. And there’s the obligatory trigger-happy “loose cannon” team member named Cody (James Michael Cummings), who predictably clashes with Wesley and snarls things like “It’s every man for himself!”
The clichés continue: The main action hero has a personal reason for fighting the enemy because he lost a loved one to the enemy. An early scene in the movie shows Frank mourning the loss of his brother Sean, who was killed in the previous “supermoon” werewolf apocalypse. Frank, Sean’s widow Lucy (played by lfenesh Hadera) and Lucy’s daughter Emma (played by Kamdynn Gary), who’s about 7 or 8 years old, are seen looking sorrowfully at a picture of Sean, as Emma says, “We love you, Dad.”
Instead of letting these “savers of the world” get ready for the supermoon apocalypse, Dr. Aranada has them cooped up in his research lab so he can show them some people who’ve been locked up in cages because they’re suspected of being werewolves. Dr. Aranada and his team of scientists have been experimenting with a liquid that they hope can be an antidote to people turning into werewolves. The liquid is administered in the eyes through eyedrops.
The supermoon comes. And at first, it seems like the antidote is working. Until it doesn’t. The people in the cages turn into werewolves. And all hell breaks loose.
There are no real surprises at all in this derivative and sloppily made movie. The people you can easily predict are going to die are the ones who end up dying. The people you can easily predict will survive are the ones who end up surviving. Grillo, who is one of the producers of “Werewolves,” is doing the same generic action-hero acting that he does in most of his movies. Everyone else’s acting in “Werewolves” is mediocre-to-horrible.
And, of course, there’s at least one “unexpected” person who’s supposed to become a werewolf as a “twist”—except it’s not a shocker because you could easily see this twist coming if you’ve seen enough werewolf movies. The violent action scenes in “Werewolves” are mind-numbing and have almost no suspense. And instead of being fearful, the werewolves are almost comical because of how fake they look. “Werewolves” isn’t the worst horror movie you could ever see, but it’s a complete waste of time for anyone who wants to see a truly scary movie.
Briarcliff Entertainment released “Werewolves” in U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024.