Director: Tony Jopia
Year: 2015
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
Following a spate of strange animal attacks, a reporter begins looking into the disappearance of several locals and finds a story about a pack of werewolves hunting victims in the town until one of their hunts brings a werewolf hunter along looking for revenge against the pack.
Review:
Overall, this one was a decent enough and enjoyable genre effort. One of the better features here is the intriguing setup that offers a fine way for everything to play out. Being the retold ramblings of an investigator looking over the book from the local shop and seeing how everything comes together from that point, there's a fun back-and-forth narrative here that has a lot to like. This main story being told in flashback as a hunting trip organized by the group to solidify their relationships with each other and take in the strange girls along the way. Given a wide range of interconnecting storylines about the nature of everyone's relationship with everyone else and some twist reveals to spice it up, there's some fun to be had with this one.
As well, there's also a lot to like here with the enjoyable creature attacks. Starting off with the brief ambush attacks of the creatures taking out villagers in random, gruesome attacks, the build-up to bugger, and more vicious encounters with the various creatures coming through and grabbing unwary victims. The big finale, where the multiple werewolves attack the girls along for the trip and attack themselves with the reveals about the driver and his friends' true reason for being there turns into a hyper-violent and over-the-top battle with the creatures which is quite a lot of fun featuring cheesy gore, some decent stunt-work, and even a few jokes along the way. All combined with a solid, imposing look for the practical werewolf effects, there's a lot to like here for the most part.
There are a few issues to be found here. The main issue on display with this one is the seemingly random inserts included in the story for no real reason. The film's setup about the reporter reading the incident from an ancient book makes it seem unlikely that a modern story would be included, much less one that includes various flashbacks to secondary stories within this main feature. As well, there are also the jarring tonal shifts that come about due to these inclusions, offering a goofy slapstick comedy vibe that seems at odds with the other horror action present. The only other flaw here is the highly obvious low-budget CGI which ranges from everything including excess bloodsplatter on gushing wounds or aftermath, physical interactions with more werewolves off-screen, or fleshing out some of the more spectacular ideas to be had within this one and feels quite underwhelming. Otherwise, there isn't much to hold this one back.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally fun and enjoyably werewolf effort that delivers the good points when necessary while held back slightly by a few negative factors, this one is quite likable for what it is. Give this a look if you're a fan of indie werewolf films, creature features in general, or are fans of the creative crew while those turned off by the style or approach should heed caution.
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