Werewolf: The Beast Among Us – review

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Director: Louis Morneau


Release date: 2012


Contains spoilers


My friend Gabriel told me about this film and suggested that it might qualify as an honourable mention due to the brief appearance of a vampire. In actuality the character revealed to be a vampire is in the film throughout and so, whether we know it or not, a vampire plays a large role in this and thus it gets a review. I am also going to spoil the vampire related reveal – sorry.

flame-thrower

The film itself carried an air of a SyFy original but it is actually a Univeral 1440 – the home entertainment wing of the more famous film studio. Of course this gives it a certain pedigree and when one thinks of the setting, and how to explain it, I guess we could say it is in a similar universe to that of Van Helsing set in a not quite steampunk era, a Victoriana where hunters have flame-throwers and Gatling guns.

Rd Quinn as Charles

After seeing the slaughter of a mother and father and the killing of the wolf by son Charles (played as a child by Stefan Iancu and as an adult by Ed Quinn, True Blood season 2) we cut forward in time and he is part of a group of elite werewolf hunters. They hear tell of a village under attack by a werewolf of unusual properties. Firstly the wolf transforms over the three nights of full moon rather than just the main night. As they hunt it they discover that it displays intelligence, seems to hunt evil men and the gypsies nearby warn that if it is not slain by the solstice moon it will develop the ability to turn at will.

Stephen Rea as Doc

A young man named Daniel (Guy Wilson) lives in the village and works with Doc (Stephen Rea, Interview with the Vampire & Underworld Awakening), the town doctor, whilst waiting to get into medical school. He has studied the victim’s corpses, been involved in euthanasia of the bitten (there seems to be a revenant/returning dead aspect to the curse as well – needing head shots and flame throwers to dispose of, but I couldn’t catch the word they used to describe them.) And you know what, that’s all I intend to tell you about the werewolf story. Rather let us look at the vampire…

Adam Croasdell as Stefan 

There is a character who wears a set of silver fangs when hunting werewolves but (as well as seeming an unconvincing and inadequate hunting weapon) he is not our vampire. That honour falls to a suave, if somewhat creepy, hunter called Stefan (Adam Croasdell). His nature is not revealed until the end of the film, though he is involved in some acrobatics that, with hindsight, might have hinted. Sunlight doesn’t bother him, nor are animals afraid of him it seems. Like the werewolf he gains power on solstice night.

showing fangs

He reveals that he has been hunting vampires for 100 years (and it is also hinted that Charles knows of his nature). His interest in Daniel’s love Eva (Rachel DiPillo) takes a more sinister twist (rather than just creepy) when we realise what he is. Impalement through the heart is the only way to kill a vampire and that is about all we get. However he is a constant character through the film and the ‘twist’ feels natural enough rather than a Deus ex Machina.

staked

The film itself isn’t too bad. The effects are okay, there are plenty of mutilated bodies as this beast does kill and kills often – though it is primarily aftermath we see. Ed Quinn exudes cool as Charles, Adam Croasdell is clearly having great fun as Stefan and Stephen Rea is always a joy. But… all that said it does have that SyFy feal I mentioned, a cheapening of the whole affair. The technology idiosyncraities I could definitely live with and, overall, I found it above average… it was just… that feel of SyFy managing to leave an unfortunate trace of a bad after-taste in the mouth.

5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.