Director: Joe Nimziki
Year: 2011
Country: Canada/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
Due to graduate from high school, a loner finds his long-dormant werewolf instincts kicking in when his mother returns to help usher in his full transformation as part of a plan to overthrow mankind with werewolves, bringing him and his girlfriend together to stop her nefarious plans.
Review:
Overall, this one was far better than it has every right to be. Among the better features here is a strong central setup that manages to be intriguing and enjoyable for what it is. The whole idea of him trying to go about getting through high school while trying to deal with the upcoming transition to adult life, while also dealing with the strange new series of powers and threats that come about, sets everything up quite nicely. As this moves along at the beginning, with the dual storylines about how he’s going along at school while trying to deal with the strange interactions of the group of strangers following him, which point to signs of him slowly turning into a werewolf, either through a family curse or the result of interacting with everyone.
With this setup in place, the final half manages to work incredibly well, where it really lets loose with the horror. Focusing on the struggle to get the better of his mother with her domineering plan to overthrow humanity, getting a ton of big action scenes out of the werewolf powers kicking in as he tries to accept his destiny in the pack. With the different encounters taking place here including some nice stalking scenes around the campus between the different members of the clans as well as the big finale involving the battle between the surviving werewolves which is given a boost by the abandoned school setting to end it on a high note and lots of action and gore, this is a lot better than expected and comes out feeling pretty good.
There are a few issues here that hold this one down. The biggest factor here is the immensely off-putting pacing, especially since the beginning of this plays out exactly like a retread of the paranormal teen romance it's so obviously inspired by, as they're tepid romance is just painfully boring to sit through. Far too much time is taken up with him wandering around the campus trying to come to terms with his feelings for the situation, as he has to go back and forth with everything. It makes for a whole series of interactions that just turn into a decidedly bland idea, with how none of this gets anywhere close to being interesting or entertaining, with how little action takes place due to this.
Lastly, there’s also the whole issue with how this one presents the werewolf here, which has a series of detrimental elements. With this one keeping them confined to the back-half of the film in brief CGI spurts, trying to keep everything hidden, the early instances of them appearing here look obviously fake and cheesy to the point of being quite ludicrous to understand. More importantly, the final battle shows him to be a completely useless figure who even as a werewolf requires help from a freshly-turned friend that simply shows up and battles the other head werewolf to save him when he gets outclassed in the fight making it hard to see him as an alpha, but even if that didn’t happen the jerky editing in the sequence doesn’t help matters. These end up being the main drawbacks with this one.
Overview: ***.5/5
An intriguing if somewhat flawed reboot of the series, this one comes off decently enough, even though there are some big issues here that bring this one down. Those with an interest in the series or who are hardcore fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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