Werewolves is a new, horror/science-fiction movie, directed by Stephen C. (Silent Night) Miller, coproduced by Myles (Wheelman) Nestel and scripted by Mathew (Canary Black) Kennedy, which features Frank (Tulsa King/The Purge: Anarchy) Grillo as a tough-guy scientist, Wesley Marshall (think along the lines of I Am Legend's Robert Neville), pitted against a legion of lofty lycanthropes that mutilate the inadvertent morsels that should cross their path.
Per Lou Diamond Phillip's Dr. Aranda (a man hoping to land the lycanthropy cure), the mass phenomenon is triggered through a dormant, lycanthrope gene that most humans possess. The pulsations of a "Supermoon" awaken this gene, and those who step into the moonlight transform into the mythic hybrids. While the Supermoon's first manifestation caught everyone off guard, global society is now on high alert for the next manifestation, but is anyone truly prepared to battle such unbridled, inner beasts?
The setup is akin to modern, zombie lore, and Grillo's psyched Marshall becomes Werewolves' by-default Ben, of Night of the Living Dead fame, as he's bookended by a couple feisty females, played by Ilfenesh (Baywatch 2017) Hadera and Katrina (Arrow) Law, who not only match Grillo's machismo against the furry force, but look damn good doing so. (The women actually battle from different locales, using their own methodologies, giving Werewolves a twofold structure reminiscent of The Day of the Triffids 1963.)
Though the intrepid, non-morphed humans carry the plot, Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis' practical, old-school effects dominate the majority of the movie's scenes. The creatures' tangible presence, in this respect, relegates Werewolves to the likes of Dog Soldiers, Silver Bullet, The Howling, An American Werewolf in London, A Werewolf in England and Werewolf Castle, but also the Alien and Predator movies (while inserting traces of the Purge franchise, along with chunks of the recent Arcadian), where a constant onslaught of attacks nurture the tension. (Such is heightened by a shivering score by James Burkholder and the Newton Brothers, the trio behind Doctor Sleep's orchestrations.)
I won't pretend that Werewolves is in any way profound, and it sure as hell won't please those who crave pretentious preaching. It's just a face-value monster movie with a conscientious, kick-ass hero and an ending that begs continuation. In other words, it's a fulfilling franchise-builder of nihilistic escape that horror fans would be wise to partake.
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