Werewolves
by Hope Madden
A supermoon is a full moon that occurs as the moon is at its closest to the earth in its orbit. And this one time, the supermoon turned everyone touched by its moonlight into werewolves.
Wow. I bet that would be a fascinating movie. But that’s not the movie writer Matthew Kennedy and director Steven C. Miller are making. Their Werewolves, starring Frank Grillo, takes place one year after the supermoon that turned everyone in its light into bloodthirsty monsters. Tonight’s the night of the next supermoon, and folks are expecting the evening is about to get pretty hairy.
Who can save us?
Oh, wait. Did I say Grillo? Well, there you go.
The film feels quite a bit like The Purge with werewolves: it’s over in one night, no emergency facilities until daybreak, don’t get caught outside, pray nothing outside wants to get in.
Grillo plays a physicist with a military background whose team has been working on a vaccine. Will it work?
It has to work, damn it! We can’t survive last year’s bloodbath all over again!
It is a funny notion – beginning with what is essentially the sequel. Anyone could change if the moonlight hits them, which makes you wonder why people don’t make the universal decision to walk in the moonlight. Would werewolves kill each other with nobody else left to eat? Another possibly fun movie, but that’s not this movie.
Apparently, most folks do not want to take the chance. But Grillo has to risk it—he’s been separated from his family and must make it through the city, the wolves and the moonlight to get back to them.
There’s a vaccine spray (it only lasts one hour!), goggled children in rain slickers, post-apocalyptic zealots, gun-happy militia types, and his own limited ammo.
But let’s talk about what really matters: the monsters. How do they look?
Mainly, OK, kind of The Howling meets Rawhead Rex. Practical elements account for the old school look, which is more than welcome and fuels the grindhouse vibe. But the truth is that this is a siege action film more than a horror flick.
There’s lots of gunplay, along with some car explosions and werewolf fist fights—paw fights? It’s ridiculous fun. And if you got full moon fever as soon as you heard “Grillo’s in a werewolf action flick,” Werewolves won’t disappoint.
