Werewolves Within: Blu-Ray Review
There are a lot of movies out there that have been adapted from video games. Since the early 90’s movie studios have been trying to catch the attention of gamers with the hopes of cashing in. The problem is that filmmakers didn’t seem to know how to do it successfully. For every solid adaptation like Mortal Kombat (2021), Rampage, Sonic the Hedgehog, there are terrible ones, Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, and House of the Dead. At least the new remake of Resident Evil gets the tone of the game right as well as the atmosphere and setting. That was something the previous franchise just wasn’t able to capture successfully. Then comes Josh Ruben’s Werewolves Within, a horror-comedy that most people probably won’t even realize was adapted from a video game of the same name. The best way for me to describe the film, would be that it is kind of like Clue (which was adapted from a board game), but the unknown killer being a werewolf.
Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) has just relocated to the small town of Beaverfield, where he has been assigned to be the new forest ranger. The first thin he does is check into his room at the local lodge, owned by Jeanine Sherman (Catherine Curtin). However, despite being a small town, the lodge seems to have plenty of guests. This includes Sam Parker (Wayne Duvall), who is trying to run a pipeline through the area, which the residents are divided on. There is also an environmentalist, Dr. Ellis (Rebecca Henderson), who has some strong concerns about Parker’s plans and finally there is mail carrier Cecily Moore (Milana Vayntub) who takes a liking to the new ranger almost instantly.
The normally quiet Beaverfield however is in for something even more terrifying than an oil pipe under their town. It turns out there is something out in the forest killing the locals and three sets of couples look for safety within the lodge, along with the rest of the guests. The problem now is that they all believe one of them is the killer after an attack takes place within the residence.
Werewolves Within is basically a darkly-comic mystery, just like Clue, where the characters as well as the audience try to figure out who might be the killer/monster. Almost all the characters are kind of nuts in their own way, which makes is much more difficult to figure out who/what is behind everything, though admittedly, I had a pretty good idea from early on and it turned out that I was correct. I found Werewolves Within to be quite entertaining and definitely one of the better video game films out there. Richardson and Vayntrub were both awesome and loved Harvey Guillén from What We Do In the Shadows turn up for a fun supporting role. It’s nice to see the guy hang out with werewolves when spending time away from the vampires. I recommend checking this one out.
By: Marc Ferman