Author: Angela Quinton

Fresh from horror/sci-fi film cheese factory The Asylum comes the latest made-for-Syfy TV movie to star some recognizable faces and CG werewolves: Battledogs. I have not seen it yet, but the “New York suffers a lycanthropy pandemic and the President is concerned” synopsis makes me wonder why The Asylum is ripping off an awesome book instead of a blockbuster movie. Here’s the trailer, which isn’t shy about showing off the werewolf action (and Bill Duke looking pensive in the back of a car).

Battledogs stars Craig Sheffer (who I actually though was a more rugged David Borenaz) Ariana Richards (Lex “This is Unix” Murphy from Jurassic Park), Wes Studi (Sphinx from Mystery Men), and Bill Duke, who antagonized Arnie in Running Man, dry-shaved in Predator and apparently never ages.

Judging solely from what’s visible in the trailer, I like the werewolf design, but the CG looks appropriately made-for-TV.

Did you see Battledogs? What did you think? Better or worse than Syfy’s other werewolf offering, Red: Werewolf Hunter?

Earlier this month, talented & voluminously-haired film director Edgar Wright was asked to introduce a screening of An American Werewolf in London, which was his pick for BFI’s Screen Epiphanies series of film screenings.

In the 12-minute intro, he talks about the film’s effect on him as a child, its influence on he and Simon Pegg while shooting Shaun of the Dead, and how it’s still a formative example of cross-genere filmmaking. Wright is joined by actor Michael Carter, the late-night Tottenham Court Road station victim, who shares some amusing stories about his scenes and how AWIL director John Landis pranked him during his first meeting with the werewolf. Also on stage is actor David Schofield, the angry darts-player from The Slaughtered Lamb, who talks about some of Landis’s more antisocial tendencies and getting fan-boy’d by Tom Cruise.

Wright’s enthusiasm for AWIL is abundant, and it was a real pleasure to see him discuss the venerable film. I think I know what I’m watching tonight!

One of the many things we talked about on last week’s Howl Out Cast podcast was the Cab Ride Prank video, a 3-minute hidden camera prank clip by BlackBoxTV. The setup is simple: a taxi driver who looks a little bit like Steve Brule has a “werewolf incident” while transporting two unsuspecting ladies. The ladies, who look like they just want to go to The Keg, are not well-pleased. Here, for your consideration and amusement, is that video.

Some of the Youtube commenters are complaining that the video is “fake” in the sense that the ladies in the back seat are actors, and that the whole thing is too orchestrated to be a legit prank. My response to that is: you’re probably right, but who cares, ya dingus? It’s three minutes of goofy, scary fun! Thanks to Werewolf News reader Karsten for sending me the link.

This weekend at WonderCon, Netflix teased werewolf fans with a scene from their upcoming 13-episode series Hemlock Grove. For those of us who couldn’t be in Anaheim, IGN has posted the 127-second transformation scene on YouTube. Let’s watch it together, shall we? I hope you haven’t eaten recently – dinner will be served at the end.

Cue the whining from werewolf aficionados who, like myself, have not actually finished reading the book. I know, I know, all that hurly-burly just to arrive at “a regular wolf” is kind of an anticlimax, right? Well, calm yourself: this scene takes place in the first 60 pages of the book (and probably at the end of the second episode), and some people who know my sensibilities and who actually make the time to read for pleasure have told me that things “get better”. I’ll find out for myself, soon – I’m travelling for work this week, so I’ll have some time to finish reading the book before the series premieres on the 19th.

I can’t get behind the “wolf under the skin” style of transformation for reasons too pedantic to discuss here, but as a re-creation of the scene as written, both technically and stylistically, I think this video was excellent. Some of the more gory shots, like the emergence of the muzzle, made me a bit squeamish… but what else was I expecting from the guy who wrote and directed Hostel?