Werewolf Cabal

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.

I found the premise of this film interesting - a parish keeping a werewolf locked in their church. The transformation scenes were well done and there were some decent moments of gore. It was nice to see Vernon Wells on screen.

As to be expected from a Chris Sanders film, the cinematography and the sound design were tight. There is a lot of audial and visual touches that give the film atmosphere.

Chris and his entire team show a lot of promise and have much to be proud of. I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to bring in the future.

Sure, the film has its flaws, but as this was made on a budget, and everyone put their best into the project, so any perceived shortcomings deserve a pass.

So, enjoy some dry and quirky British humour along with some simple, yet effective werewolf effects and some fun scenes of viscera and gore.

Thank you for all the entertainment you've given us, Chris Sanders!!

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.

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.

On the trail of a serial killer, a pair of cops reach out to an informant for information on the case which lets them in on a tale he knows about a writer returning to his hometown to claim his mother's inheritance and coming across a monstrous curse haunting the village which puts them in grave danger.

Overall, this was a pretty solid and enjoyable if slightly flawed effort. One of the better features here is the setup about the writer returning here and getting in touch with the locals in the community. From the quirky real estate agent that sets him on his way to the relationship featured here between him and the former maid who lives at the house, this comes together to set in motion the features of the main crop of villagers. That this also leads to the discovery of what's going on as the events begin to unfold and their occult practices come to the forefront serves this even better allowing for a great main storyline. That gives the film a highly enjoyable setup to provide a base for some genuinely fun cheesy creature action. The beast itself doesn't get any screentime until an hour in but it comes in grand style with a fun throwback transformation sequence featuring the kind of cheesy practical effects that are required here offering a fantastic sequence. The resulting rampage and action of it running loose in the countryside area provides some fun times while featuring some fine gore as well which makes this frenetic and rather exciting section have some life as it also ties the black magic rites being brought into play as the motivation and backstory for the creature. All told, these factors provide a lot to like here. This one does have some minor issues with it. The main problem here is that the tempo of the film is quite flat and underwhelming which plods along at a disheartening rhythm. The stoic mannerisms and exceptionally talkative setup make this come across as immensely lethargic and plodding rather than anything else making it feel longer than it should. There are also the rather clumsy attempts at comedy that further derail the film, from the cops at the beginning who clown around to the degree they don't appear as genuine police to the silly werewolf make-up and the goofy encounters to stop it which are out-of-place, leaving this with its big drawbacks.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.