Werewolf Cabal

Very surprised at the negative comments on this one, yes it's not a major Hollywood production with millions in the bank to spend however for a low budget film I was thoroughly entertained.

Sometimes you just need to enjoy a low budget film for what it is and being a big film fan I appreciate this and take it into consideration.

I do agree the acting could be more fluid however off the back of the past 3 years it's great to see fresh material and I'm sure the guys and girls involved in the making of this film we're glad to be back doing what they love.

If you appreciate a good and entertaining low budget horror comedy then give it a go.

It's refreshing to see an indie flick where it's obvious that they're trying hard to make it all work on a shoestring budget.

It's also quite a pallette clenser to see a movie with no CGI or green screen.

Some comedy, some horror and a generally a bit of everything.

It has an element of nostalgia to old Hammer Horror movies with a pinch of dark humour thrown in for good measure.

With a bigger budget I can see future movies increasing in visual quality and allowing the director move of a chance to really do what they want.

Not everything works in this movie but it rarely ever does. Good effort though.

Good stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I love a cheesy werewolf flick. But I do expect actors to, you know, actually act? And the writing to be somewhat indicative of the actual flow of normal human conversation?

This movie was unbearable, and with an almost 2 hour run time, I had a lot of time to gather evidence.

It's like aliens trying to mimic humans wrote this movie. The dialogue is (at the very least) unnatural, and the acting leaves me hating every character. I was mostly hoping they would all just get torn to shreds so I could be done with it. What's the plot? Why should I care about Guy with Bad American Accent and his half-brother, Spirit Halloween Werewolf Mask? I get that making movies is fun, but save this for your high school art project. Run away, friends.

Right, well I can't exactly claim to be harboring any expectations as I sat down to watch the 2022 horror comedy titled "Werewolf Cabal" from writer and director Chris Sanders. I had never actually heard about the movie prior to getting to sit down and watch it. And seeing that the movie had Vernon Wells on the cast list, well that was something that sort of made an alarm clock go off.

But I still opted to watch the movie, on account of it being a horror comedy that I hadn't already seen.

Comedy? Nay, "Werewolf Cabal" was most definitely not a comedy. I wasn't brought to laughter once throughout the unfathomably slow paced narrative. Nor was I even brought to a smile. "Werewolf Cabal" was fully and wholly devoid of anything even remotely comedy related.

And as for it being a horror movie? Well, my friends, that might be stretching the term horror quite a bit. Unless you consider something that looked, sounded and felt like a home-made video as being horror, well, then you're in for quite a horror treat.

The acting performances in the movie were bland. Nothing noteworthy here, but thankfully I've seen worse in other movies, so that counts for something in favor of "Werewolf Cabal", I suppose.

Visually then "Werewolf Cabal" offers nothing interesting or worthwhile either. The werewolf was painfully obvious just an expensive halloween costume. And you know you're in for a bad time when a werewolf movie has werewolves with inarticulate heads, which clearly is just a furry, rubber mask.

If you enjoy werewolf movies, such as I also do, then do yourself a favor and stay well clear of "Werewolf Cabal" from writer and director Chris Sanders. The best part about "Werewolf Cabal" was actually the cover/poster.

My rating of "Werewolf Cabal" lands on a one out of ten stars.

There's a lot going for this indie movie and, given the limited budget, I feel the filmmakers did a great job. The acting was, for the most part solid. The sound effects were great and the ambient background music very effective. Additionally, the werewolf transformations were simple, yet effective.

There were a few well known actors that I felt were, perhaps underutilized such as one of my personal favorites, the great Vernon Wells, himself.

Without spoilers, the movie started with some great comedic dialogue and this light tone continued throughout most of the movie. It didn't take itself seriously and it had a light and fluffy tone that was hilarious while still maintaining some horror elements. This silliness continued to the actual werewolf itself. The transformation was fun and effective while the actual werewolf costume was ridiculous but intentionally so. The comedic timing of the actors was great too. Antonia Whillans (Charlotte) and Derek Nelson (Michael) did well, individually, as the main protagonists. Although, I could not fault their individual acting chops in any way, I was unconvinced by the forced chemistry required of the plot. Mostly this is because the character of Charlotte was demonstrated to clearly be in love with someone else. However, it wasn't made clear if she was toying with the Michael character or had genuine feelings for him too. Jon-Paul Gates did a phenomenal job as a struggling priest and his part was definitely a show stealer and epically hilarious in a "did he actually just do that?" kind of way. I absolutely loved the light comedic tone throughout most of the movie.

Then, for the final quarter of the movie, it changed from it's previous comedic tone to trying to be a fairly serious slasher movie. Again, other than the werewolf costume itself, the serious part of the movie was filmed and presented well. Essentially, we ended up with two different movies. A light and fluffy comedic horror and a serious attempt at a slasher movie. Both parts worked well individually but put together was a rough transition and I really wish it had maintained it's comedic tone throughout the entire movie.

On the whole, I enjoyed the movie a lot but it was tainted slightly by the jarring change of style at the end. On the whole though, entertaining and worth watching at least once.