There’s a moment partway through Werewolves where protagonist Dr. Wesley Marshall (Frank Grillo), a former Marine and current molecular biologist working on a cure for the condition that turns every human on the planet into a werewolf if they’re exposed to moonlight during a supermoon, is racing to his sister-in-law’s and crashes his car into a city bus that comes out of nowhere. While the argument could be made that he was distracted and wasn’t looking where he was going, the point could also be raised that this occurs well after night has fallen, so there’s no reason why any bus should still be on the road. (This one is well-lit, conspicuously empty, and doesn’t even appear to have a driver.) Marshall simply needed to be delayed and this was the reason dreamed up by screenwriter Matthew Kennedy, putting it on par with some of the nonsensical choices made by his characters.
This is a shame because the basic premise of Werewolves is solid enough that it could have sustained a Purge-like action/horror film about a man fighting to protect his dead brother’s wife and daughter from the ravenous creatures prowling around their fortified house. Alas, after setting up the defenses, including an electrified fence, a drum full of mace, bear traps, and nail boards (not to mention a dozen security cameras so they can keep tabs on what’s going on outside as long as the power doesn’t get knocked out), Marshall leaves to join his colleagues (under the direction of Lou Diamond Phillips, who doesn’t stick around long) seeking to test out an experimental “moonscreen” spray they hope will prevent the transformations. (Since all the scientists are in heavy hazmat suits with cameras on the inside so the viewer can see their faces, this is as close as you can get to ripping off Aliens without being a sequel to a movie called Werewolf.) The trouble with the formula they came up with is it wears off after an hour, at which point all hell breaks loose, forcing Marshall and lupine behavior expert Dr. Chen (Katrina Law) to hit the road, and eventually that bus.
Director Steven C. Miller (an action specialist with several latter-day Bruce Willis movies and Escape Plan 2: Hades on his CV) cuts back and forth between Marshall’s odyssey across town (with Puerto Rico subbing for Florida) and the siege at the house, where his sister-in-law Lisa (Ilfenesh Hadera) does a great job of wasting all her shotgun shells by blasting away at the hairy intruders before they even have a chance to get inside and make themselves proper targets.
And what targets they are! While the CGI transformation are as lousy as you would expect them to be, the final forms of the werewolves look terrific, and Miller gives them plenty of screen time, highlighting the care that went into the film’s practical effects, with plenty of red meat for the gore hounds. Too bad Miller also let some of Kennedy’s more egregious quips make it past the script stage, such as the moment (featured in the trailer) where Marshall gets the wolves’ attention by shouting, “Hey! Bite me.” Meanwhile, after he finally arrives at his destination, the best he can muster is “All right, you hairy motherfuckers. Come fetch.” Yeesh.
Werewolves, which came out last weekend, is still playing in some theaters. Catch it while you can. And be on the lookout for Blumhouse’s Wolf Man in January. For some reason, they’ve chosen to release that the weekend after the full moon. I don’t get it, either.