Werewolf Castle (2021) by Charlie Steeds


Director: Charlie Steeds
Year: 2021
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Werewolf

Plot:
After attacking their homestead, a lone survivor of his village’s decimation is rescued by a roving band of knights looking to rid the countryside of the werewolf clan that had earlier attacked and destroyed his community setting off on a mission to destroy the creatures once and for all.

Review:

This was a fairly fun genre effort with a lot to like about it. One of the finer features of this one is the simplistic setup that provides this with a fairly straightforward approach to things. That it opens immediately with the assault on the village and the werewolves ripping through the town where he’s the only one left alive following the incidents and hooks up with the gang on their crusade to destroy them allowing this to go in quite a few fun directions. The pacing allows this to immediately get started establishing a threat of the creatures, giving the survivor a reason to join the Knights hunting them down and giving us some fun being out on the trip through the woods where they try to band together on the trek where the experience is used as a confidence-building exercise that carries on the more they’ve come together on the trip.

The other solid part to enjoy here is the use of creature action to drive this along with some fun times. The initial attack on the village is great with the creatures appearing as if weary travelers trying to secure a place to stay while on their journey and then starting to rip through everyone when they get inside the village grounds. This results in plenty of brutal attacks leading to some fantastic gore and action as the means through which he escapes to join the fight later on is a fine time here while serving this one nicely in the later scenes where the dwindling group encounters and knock off a bunch of the creatures before getting taken out themselves before getting to the main battle at the castle for a big ending. The series of sword-battles not just with the werewolves present but the other encounters with the human figure turned into the new villain offers a nice payoff to the storyline setup beforehand which all comes together for a lot to like.

There are some slight drawbacks to this one that hold it down. The biggest detriment here is the highly disappointing series of twists present in the finale where it tries to present the action here as coming out of nowhere with who turns on who for what reasons. Instead of being a shock, this reveal is just lame and underwhelming with the figure not being that interesting and everything being handled in a generally lackluster way so it never really registers as much of an impression as it seems. As well, there’s also the series of issues present that give away its low-budget origins, not just the silly werewolf costumes that are placed in broad daylight way too frequently but the clanging swords are obviously rubber and the props around everyone tend to undermine the immersion this had set up with the majority of the film being a truly effective time-period setup. These are the few drawbacks present with this one.


Overview: ***.5/5
A highly enjoyable period-piece werewolf feature, this one comes off quite fun with a lot to like about it and being let down by a few big issues which adds some intriguing elements to this one. Those who are intrigued by the concept of this one, enjoy werewolf films or creature features in general, appreciate this kind of indie effort, or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like here while those turned off by what’s on display will want to heed caution here.

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