Director: Jacqueline Castel
Year: 2024
Country: Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
Trying to live with a deadly secret, a teenage girl struggling with her sexuality and the monstrous secret within her tries to strike up a romance with a new girl in town that shares her interests, but as the dark secret threatens to put everything in danger forcing her to fight for what she wants.
Review:
This was a fairly enjoyable if somewhat difficult to label as a genre outing. The main focus here is on the stellar coming-of-age storyline, managing to balance a fantastic setup involving the series of issues presented to her as a series of obstacles to overcome. With the build-up here involving the struggles of being a loner teenager in a small town such as this, growing up in that type of conservative environment while balancing the growing realization of her feelings for her neighbor with the usual trial and tribulations of growing up, and doing all that while trying to keep as dark a secret as her lycanthropic origins come to the forefront is a massively engaging way to go about this. Combining it all with the other family dynamics utilized here generates the kind of immersive drama that gives this a stand-out storyline to start with.
On top of that, there's also a lot to like with the influx of artfully-accomplished scenes that focus on the inner nature of the werewolf within her. Taking place in neon-soaked sequences in a blank, black space where her carnal desires and experiences are presented, the hallucinatory approach taken here is masterfully accomplished. This ends up creating a genuinely enthralling series of setpieces that bring about a more erotic tone than expected even if they bring about the main issue with the film in that it's hard to call this a genuine genre effort. The dramatic approach and lack of traditional genre thrills for such an unwieldy running time cause this to drag on way too much rather than focus on the desired carnage and bloodletting most would desire. It's entirely the wrong attitude since it has different aspirations in mind but that should still be mentioned here.
Overview: ***.5/5
Far more effective lesbian coming-of-age drama than genuine werewolf horror, nevertheless this one manages to have enough to like about it that it does hold itself up from the flaws that do emerge here. Those who appreciate this type of genre effort or aren’t bothered by the flaws here will find plenty to like about it while those who only want traditional genre fare should heed caution if not outright avoid it.
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