Wolves Against the World (2024) by Quinn Armstrong


Director: Quinn Armstrong
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Werewolf

Plot:
Trying to leave his past behind him, a reformed Neo-Nazi is brought back into the sphere of his old bandmate and their previous ways together when he spends time at the remote cabin where he lives, and when the truth about his condition is revealed must fight to save his life and his friend.

Review:

Overall, this was a rather disappointing effort from what it could’ve been. Among its brighter aspects is the rather decent setup that provides an intriguing starting point for everything. The main setup involving the background of his past, the controversial beliefs he had with his connection to his friend that helped to spur everything on and the desire to leave it behind, provides a great pretext for the emotional conflict at the core of the film. With the old friend desiring a means of bringing his friend back into his newfound cult of followers that he’s initially leery about and trying to distance from. The appeal and lure of running into his old friend running counterintuitively to his repentance and moving on creates a fine starting point for the discovery about the true nature of their being at the cabin which is what gives the finale a lot to like when it’s revealed and everything gets far more energetic and crazy. It’s easily the best part of this one taking its build-up into a solid and thrilling time.

Beyond this, though, the film is just immensely dull and difficult to get into. The slow-burn pace involving the rekindling friendship and going through their past history together with previous gigs that went sour because of their personal beliefs, thinly-veiled recruitment pledges, and outspoken propaganda ploys that try to make sense of their different paths in life but hardly anything remotely genre-related happens during this part. It makes the film slow to a crawl at the very start with the first two-thirds of the running time spent on these unlikable, wrong-headed ideologies so it’s really hard to get invested in this weak-willed guy trying and failing to see the toxic friendship he has with a former associate who only came back into his life through inherent stupidity that becomes a running theme throughout the final half with everything being the result of stupidity more than anything. With very few actual scenes of werewolves in this in favor of more of a berserker setup, these all bring the film down.


Overview: *.5/5
An overall underwhelming feature that has some pretty big flaws present, that these are all enough to knock this one down leaves this one feeling like a missed opportunity than anything else. Give it a shot if you’re intrigued by the concept at play or curious about the trilogy overall while most others out there turned off by it’s drawbacks should heed caution.

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