Werewolf: The Beast Among Us.

Taking a momentary break from Full Moon to look at a brand new 2012 werewolf movie, that doesn't even have a Wikipedia article... Plus Full Moon (arf get it?). Enjoy!

A quick look around IMDb would suggest people actually like this film, yes it has less than a five on the ratings but that is probably because this is a 2012 direct-to-disc movie and that is usually a mark of lesser quality from the outset. Either way, people have had a lot of fun with it and I love werewolves and cheap ass movies, so I got all excited. Plus it's brought to you by Universal, how bad could it be?

In answer to that question, really bad. I mean it never had to be, it has lots of great set-up, seemingly leading to something awesome...but it just doesn't. It just doesn't kind of sums up everything because this a movie largely about nothing, an hour or so of set-up with practically zero pay off. I mean look at all those cool hunters on the poster, one is a cowboy...one has an eye patch and guess what, none of them get to do anything. Honestly we learn so little about everyone, I couldn't even tell you their names without checking IMDb first, clearly they took lessons from this years Avengers for pacing tips.

There is so little of anything I'm not sure I could even sum up the plot. Our hunters arrive in town on the hunt for some kind of super werewolf who is targeting the lowlifes in a village and picking them off. There is also this legend of some great hunter and like shitty hunters called poachers and other oddly unexplored ideas that are normally introduced in TV pilots to be explored later in the series...but this isn't one. There is also a kid training to be a doctor in the village and my God is he annoying as fuck, but he won't leave our heroes alone after they sort of save him, great looks like the film has to drag this dead weight around. And so the group begin to set up a trap for the werewolf praying on the town, knowing that this is no ordinary werewolf but the new super werewolf isn't the only problem, there is a bunch of shitty hunters trying to get in there first. Anyway, they have to stop the werewolf before the longest night of the year because after that point it'll be unstoppable - this is oddly where the film actually starts to get interesting, with nearly an hour long set up, it's immensely satisfying when the closing half an hour throws us a barrage of both answers and twists and then just as it all starts getting interesting...it just kinda...ends. Awesome.

Like I don't even get it, okay, you have budget limitations and don't want to skimp down on your running time, that's fine, but why not fill your time with character development, then? I wouldn't have minded the lack of action or werewolves if something actually bloody happened. I mean you bothered to create all these cool hunters, you have all this space, so why do you do nothing with them? It just ends up feeling trimmed down in both story and in action. It like jumps straight to the third act near enough, but then just lingers there for an hour, if you don't have the budget to go into the action then can you give us that act and a half or so that was basically missing from this film? Charles, Stefan and Daniel are the only characters explored and Charles is the only character who actually gets a flashback and although the cast isn't huge, it makes no sense that half of it was basically completely unexplored, then why are those characters there? There are lots of great ideas here, just none of them get used, which is why I ended up coming away from this feeling so sorely disappointed. It's just...such a waste.

There is one bit of story wasted here in particular that really saddened me that it was so woefully unexplored and that was the story of the werewolf himself. I won't spoil who it is, but the reveal to both us and the character itself proves that it could have made for a really great story, if had any flesh or substance at all.

What also doesn't work with this pacing is the hunters themselves. With the way they are introduced and the way they go on, you'd think they were the best in the business, around an hour in they finally get a chance to show us what they've got and then proceed to get their asses beat all round the set, landing barely a scratch on the werewolf despite all the explosions and bullets flying all over the place. This is also the only time 90% of the main cast actually get to really do anything, to further support an utter waste of what could have been a great cast of characters. I mean sure they establish this is no ordinary werewolf but I mean Jesus, these guys suck.

Much like everything else, the werewolves lack substance or flesh. I'm not saying every monster movie needs to reinvent the monster it is featuring, especially because so often it turns out horrible but I still can't help feel a little let down that they didn't at least try to add something new or different. I mean there is the torching of the corpses with the whole varkolak thing, but that doesn't go anywhere until roughly the last twenty minutes of the film. And the whole 'I'm more powerful because I was born a werewolf' thing is something we've seen time and time again.

When it finally bloody gets there the action in this film is great, despite being made for under four million (which I'm not sure even counts as low budget, but it certainly isn't a huge one when you think some documentaries are made for twice as much and a lot of blockbusters are easily made for thirty times that) it looks awesome. There is admittedly some really weak CGI but the film manages to, for the most part at least, edit and shoot around it and do it stylishly enough to not look like it's just hiding budget limitations (although we all know it is). The actual practical stuff, like the gore and fisticuffs looks absolutely brilliant even if it does boil down in the end to a rather typical vampire vs werewolf battle but let's be honest, CGI lets the best of them down, least of all low budgetish film like this.

Another thing to note is this is not a goofy film, the film is extremely dark. The first werewolf we see is a seemingly innocent girl and although there is a brief moment where they think on this, a moment later they are trying to take her down like they would any other werewolf. And by any other, I mean that seriously. You remember that scene in 28 Days Later where Mark gets scratched and Selena takes him out within a heartbeat? Yeah, that is exactly the case here but by doctors/hunters with guns.

So do I recommend it? Werewolf: The Beast Among Us is looking set to the win the award of 'Think About It!'s Biggest Disappointment: 2012'. It's not a bad film, perse, it certainly has its moments but it had all the elements to be something truly great and nearly every one of those elements is wasted and pissed away and it leaves me so frustrated and so sorely disappointed. I think it's such a shame that I can't recommend this but I honestly can't see many actually enjoying this, even with the IMDb user reviews.

Think About It!

-Locke