Four Werewolf Movies

WAR WOLVES

The back cover of the War Wolves DVD states that the film is about a “Special Forces unit” in search of “Jake Gabriel, a soldier who has been infected with the werewolf virus.” That implies that the tale will focus on a werewolf. When I watch a werewolf movie, I expect to see a person transform into a wolf (and ideally go on a rampage or three). War Wolves does not include any full-on lycanthropy action. There’s a pack of three female werewolves who sprout fangs a couple of times, and they later sport tiny snouts that look like bad homemade make-up jobs for a Halloween party, but never does an infected individual completely change into a wolf. The story follows the adventures of Jack Ford (head of the Special Forces unit) as well as the she-wolves, who also seem to be after Jake Gabriel for some reason that I never fully gleaned (I believe there was some chatter about making him their wolf leader). The plot mostly unfolds through talking heads spouting exposition with a periodic poorly-constructed fight scene thrown in. Absolutely avoid this project (which premiered in 2009 on the SyFy Channel) unless you intend to riff on it in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000.


NEVER CRY WEREWOLF

Imagine the classic 1985 film Fright Night with a female protagonist and a werewolf instead of a vampire. That’s essentially the template for Never Cry Werewolf, a movie about a teen girl (Loren) who grows to believe that her new neighbor (Jared) is a killer who can transform into a wolf at will. When the cops don’t take her seriously, Loren sets out to stop the beast with the help of an actor (Redd Tucker) who plays a big-game hunter on television.

The second half of Never Cry Werewolf is significantly better than the first and includes a memorable scene in which Jared’s pet dog transforms into a creature I might run across in a nightmare the next time I sleep. The story includes some new variations on werewolf mythology (in this film, werewolves are immortal and can exert a sort of telepathic contact, a device used to rather silly effect via voice-overs during the finale).

The parallels between this story and the original Fright Night (not to be confused with the remake thereof) are numerous. A new neighbor moves next door to the protagonist, who later looks through windows to see the neighbor kill a woman. A somewhat dorky sidekick gets transformed into a monster. Cops don’t take the hero seriously. An unlikely ally is a fixture on local TV.

Despite its unoriginality, Never Cry Werewolf is watchable, though beware of periodic bursts of pop music that seem disproportionately loud compared to the dialogue on the DVD’s soundtrack. Not awful, not great.


WOLF MOON

Wolf Moon (alternately titled Dark Moon Rising) features a distinctly misogynistic tonal undercurrent, sixty minutes of story stretched across a two-hour running time, and one interesting experimental flashback sequence that begins with newspaper headlines projected behind an old story-telling lawman and then cuts to the cop’s confrontation with a prisoner he’s been describing in an unusual grainy film stock. The plot ostensibly revolves around a young woman named Amy, though she takes little action as events unfold in the story’s final act. Amy falls in love (rather quickly and unconvincingly) with a fellow (Dan) who happens to be a livestock-killing werewolf. Dan’s father, also a werewolf, shows up to confront his son for some sketchy reason. A final showdown involves Amy’s dad (who has been trying to keep Dan and Amy apart), Dan, the sheriff, and a livestock farmer all versus Dan’s father (Bender), who has kidnapped Amy.

I’ve read some reviews that claim Wolf Moon is essentially the first Twilight Saga movie with a werewolf instead of a vampire. I can’t comment, as I’ve never seen a Twilight film. I can say that on its own terms, Wolf Moon is pretty excruciating to sit through. The bland characters all behave in unbelievable ways (like when the female sheriff opts to go on a date instead of obsessively pursuing clues in the various murders and other crimes piling up around her and when Amy barely reacts when Dan confesses to her that he’s a lycanthrope). There are periodic cheesy voice-overs in which Amy muses about the nature of love and fate. The ending stretches on and on with an unnecessary epilogue. If you seek a quality werewolf film, avoid this junk and instead track down the Collector’s Edition DVD of Ginger Snaps (a fine movie).


THE WOLF MAN (1941 version)

The 1941 version of The Wolf Man focuses on Lawrence Talbot, a fellow who returns to his ancestral home following his brother’s death in a hunting accident. Lawrence peeps on the neighborhood through a massive telescope and spots a beautiful young woman in a room over an antique shop. Lawrence goes to the store, befriends the girl (Gwen), and insists that he’ll pick her up that evening. Lawrence, Gwen, and her friend Jenny go to have their fortunes told in a Gypsy camp. The night ends badly when Jenny is attacked by a werewolf that Lawrence kills with a silver-headed cane, but not before the wolf bites him. Tragedy ensues as the now-infected Lawrence grows to realize that he has become a monster.

Decades after its original release, the old black-and-white version of The Wolf Man still evokes primal fear through its images of a fanged and clawed predator stalking its way through fog-enshrouded tree silhouettes. With its simple story and short running time (70 minutes), The Wolf Man might be a good introduction to the horror genre for younger movie buffs (I recall being glued to the television as a kid whenever channel 43 broadcast this or any old Universal monster movie).

The most-often quoted dialogue from this film is the “even a man who is pure in heart” speech, but what I found more touching was this bit that Maleva (an old Gypsy woman) recites over the bodies of two deceased werewolves: “The way you walked was thorny – through no fault of your own. But as the rain enters the soil, the river enters the sea, so tears run to a predestined end.” Such is the poetry of screenwriter Curt Siodmak.

The Wolf Man is a marvelous basic tale of lycanthropy peppered with truly spooky imagery. Start here before moving on to more recent advanced fare like the Ginger Snaps trilogy.

The Mimic Trilogy

MIMIC

I checked out the Mimic trilogy on DVD this weekend.  The first film centers around an insect expert named Susan who engineers a “Judas Bug” and releases it into the greater New York City area with the intent of wiping out cockroaches that carry a disease that’s fatal to many children.  Her plan works, but three years later she discovers that the Judas Bugs (designed to die out after one generation) have somehow survived, reproduced, and mutated into giant winged-cockroach-like things.  With the help of her husband (Peter), a cop (Leonard), and a shoe-shine man (Manny), Susan sets out to destroy the one fertile male on which the ability of the bug colony to thrive depends.

I enjoyed Mimic and perceived it as an above-average creature feature.  There are a couple of tense moments when I thought, “There’s no way the protagonist can get out of this situation.”  Screenwriters Matthew Robbins & Guillermo del Toro (who adapted the script from a short story by Donald A. Wollheim) surprised me at every turn as Susan somehow cheated death again and again.  I loved the fact that for once in a monster movie the human characters reacted realistically when confronted with a heretofore unknown predator.  Also, Peter’s solution for wiping out all of the female bugs results in collateral damage on the streets of New York City, a fine realistic touch.  I also appreciated that some characters I expected to survive did not.  I won’t spoil what occurs in Susan’s showdown with the fertile male bug.  Mimic, originally released in 1997, holds up well on home video and is worth a look for an engaging variation on the old man-versus-nature horror tale sub-type.

MIMIC 2

 The middle film in the trilogy is a decent sequel that follows a grade school teacher (Remi) who for some reason finds herself and those around her targeted by a surviving giant mutant Judas Bug that has evolved the ability to mimic the appearance of specific individuals.  Remi finds herself trapped in the school with one current and one former student.  The bug stalks them through some tense sequences.  Remi survives with a bit of help from the Army, and then there’s an epilogue/twist ending that borders on silly.

If Mimic 2 (released in 2001) ever explains why the bug has chosen to stalk Remi (who also appeared in the first film), I missed those details.  That minor quibble and the film’s incredibly short running time are my only real complaints.  Remi is developed here as a memorable and quirky protagonist who finds inspired new uses for a Polaroid camera and is a magnet for unhealthy relationships.  The plot is as grounded in reality as a film about people hunted by an oversized mutant cockroach can be (once again featuring a realistic reaction from a character who encounters the large bug for the first time) – too often in such films, people are almost unfazed upon seeing the monster. 

MIMIC 3: Sentinel

The weak link in the Mimic narrative chain, part 3 is a radical departure from the style and structure of the first two movies and focuses on a “bubble boy” (a fellow in his twenties named Marvin) who is mostly confined to his upstairs bedroom due to his hypersensitivity to many allergens.  Marvin, a semi-imprisoned voyeur, whiles away his time photographing his neighbors.  His younger sister Rosy keeps him company.  Some Judas Bugs show up in the neighborhood while a cop woos Marvin’s mom, and not a hell of a lot more occurs until near the end of this tale’s blissfully short 76-minute running time.

Poorly-paced in such a way that the story feels long even though it’s at least 14 minutes shy of being truly feature-length, Mimic 3: Sentinel (released in 2003) is one to avoid.  While I admire filmmaker J.T. Petty for trying to make a singular and unique installment in this franchise, the specifics of what he’s chosen to do aren’t to my taste.  One sequence in which Rosy and her friend Carmen (played by a pre-Lost Rebecca Mader) explore the apartment of a neighbor while Marvin observes through his camera reminded me of a similar scene in John Carpenter’s Someone’s Watching Me (a project I like quite a lot).  Mimic 3 plods along with little structure and few moments of tension until the final fifteen minutes.  Don’t waste your time on this one.