Wolves

A popular teenager in the Northeast (Lucas Till) discovers that he's a werewolf and escapes to the road after a tragedy at home. Upon getting a tip from Lemmy (John Pyper-Ferguson), he ends up in Lupine Ridge where he obtains a job at a farm and develops a relationship with a young bar owner (Merritt Patterson), which offends the wolfish town leader (Jason Momoa). Stephen McHattie plays the friendly farmer who takes the boy under his wings.

The creatively titled "Wolves" (2014) is a quality werewolf flick that's reminiscent of the Marvel comic book Werewolf by Night. (Even the werewolves resemble Don Perlin's versions a little). It has elements of The Howling franchise, but with better production values than the sequels, as well as a dash of "Twilight" (2008) and "The Messengers" (2007). (I hate mentioning "Twilight" because it will automatically turn off loads of people, but I mean the good aspects of that infamous movie).

"Wolves" has the right choices for the main cast, enough gore, some decent action, beautiful women, notable songs and exquisite Ontario locations with great nighttime sylvan ambiance. Yes, it's thoroughly comic booky, but it's well made for what it is and delivers the goods. I saw the theatrical version, but I heard the unrated version is a vast improvement with additional exposition.

The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes and was shot in Ontario in the greater Toronto area.

GRADE: B+

You know what your getting from this, which is basically a teen wolf movie. As stated the acting isn't going to win an Oscar, but it decent enough for the budget and script given. The wolves are by far the best part. They are well made and aren't low budget at all, very good FX department. I would say you want a werewolf movie for the sake of that kind of movie then check this out. Jason plays his character well for this movie, not overly scary but you sure wont love him either. I would like to see a sequel to this that explain the history of the main blood lines and goes into that more. They can recast for that with no issues plot wise, which makes it an excellent jumping off point.

When I stumbled upon "Wolves", I had not heard about it, but I was intrigued by the DVD cover. Why? Well, as a life-long avid fan of horror, of course I do enjoy werewolf movies.

"Wolves" turned out to be fairly generic in terms of werewolves movie go, but it was still entertaining enough for what it turned out to be.

The storyline in "Wolves" was predictable for sure, but still turned out to be entertaining enough.

They had a good cast ensemble, which performed quite well and actually managed to keep the movie from sinking into mediocrity. It was rather interesting to watch Jason Momoa in a movie such as this, and I must admit that he was cast quite well for such a role.

One of the best things about "Wolves" was the great special effects and CGI, because they really added lots of flavor and layers to the movie.

Luckily "Wolves" didn't turn out to be a revamped version of "Twilight" just with werewolves instead of vampires. It was actually rather enjoyable, although I doubt it is a movie that you will return to watch a second time around.

I honestly don't know why some people have responded so negatively towards this film. Perhaps they did not watch more than the first twenty or so minutes.

It takes Wolves time to get off the ground and the segue into the story is not managed all that well, giving the initial impression of a clumsy B movie. If however, you persist you will be rewarded. Wolves improves as a the story progresses. The story itself is predicable horror fare but its competently done and very enjoyable.

The acting is solid too, and includes some capable Canadian actors you may be familiar with, such as Stephen McHattie, of Pontypool fame.

My advice ignore the negative nellies and give Wolves a go. You wont be disappointed. Eight out of ten from me.

I have to say that much of what has come out over the past 15 years has been lacking in one way or another, but particularly in originality. Additionally, stories always seem to fall short as a majority of the focus is on CGI effects and the sexual appeal to teen hormones.

I thought that this film did a fair job at being original in its plot and story. And though the story was not the greatest, it was different and it was entertaining. Nothing here was over done. As with anything, there was room for improvement, but I liked it just the same.

As for effects, the costumes and makeup were very well done. The stunts were reasonable and plausible for this type of film. Again, not over done.

I would be willing to see a sequel should the producers get the impulse to try again.

If you like werewolves, you might enjoy this film. Being a budget flick, the cost is low enough to own the DVD and not feel a pinch when you're done watching.