From Jeremy Kibler

Based on what is either the most definitive or the most generic title ever, Werewolves is exactly what you think it will be. It’s an unwinkingly silly, meat-and-potatoes B-movie about werewolves, indeed, but never as much fun as it could have been. A movie that knows what kind of movie it is and just revels in its genre would have been swell, but Werewolves is so dreary and self-serious.

A supermoon has triggered a global event where over a billion people have transformed into werewolves for an entire night. It’s The Purge: Anarchy but with werewolves. The film has a central hero in Wesley, played with macho strength by gun-show adonis Frank Grillo. He holes up in a boarded-up house with his motivational line-reciting sister-in-law, Lucy (Ilfenesh Hadera), and his niece, Emma (Kamdynn Gary), after the death of his first-responder brother (who, as we learn in the incredibly mawkish opening, loved chocolate cupcakes). After a bunch of scientists try ending the werewolf mutation, something goes wrong and it’s time to light up some more wolfies. 

Standard action hero Frank Grillo and badass Ilfenesh Hadera (Baywatch) are fully capable, while the rest of the performances (if this criticism even matters) are stiff as hell. Matthew Kennedy’s script, which has thinly drawn characters speaking dumb dialogue, is almost beside the point.

Director Steven C. Miller thankfully gets his hands on cool practical effects for the wolfies, brought to life by f/x legend Alec Gillis and team (Aliens, Predator, and both Smile movies). Go watch a behind-the-scenes featurette because the effects are the only special achievement here. Cinematographer Brandon Cox never saw a lens flare he didn’t like, but some of his tracking shots are nifty. A wannabe Jurassic Park set-piece under an SUV might generate the most tension.

Werewolves is vicious when it wants to be but never thrilling enough — or even gloriously stupid enough. As a fresh riff on lycanthrope lore, this action-horror flick does have a few interesting ideas (you’re toast if your skin gets exposed to the moon) without actually adding anything to the genre. By this time, it’s a little late, but at least the movie has the decency to (spoiler) let Frank Grillo stare at the full moon and rip his shirt off.

Rating: 2/5

Werewolves hits theaters on December 6, 2024. 

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