As a trashy B-Movie, Darkwolf is a success. Overall, it's an entertaining 90 minutes of incredibly cheesy horror, coming off like a hybrid of Innocent Blood and Species. Basic plot outline: The prince of hybrid Werewolves, the titular Darkwolf, is in town on the hunt for the Werewolf Matriarch so he can mate and make lots of vicious Werewolf babies. Trick is, the Matriarch has just recently been born, and doesn't know what she is, so is kind of busy waitressing to cover college fees.
Nothing unusual there then. Ahem. Darkwolf is played with a kind of leaden menace by horror's premier rotting corpse for hire Kane Hodder in a fashion that pretty much reminded me of Jason only he didn't have the mask on. Kane doesn't really do much other than throw people about (the wolfed-out version is played by someone else) and he does that well, so all's well there. Also, the lead good-guys Josie and Steve are acted well, and have a genuine on screen chemistry that makes any of the movie they're in a load of laughs.
Still, the rest of the cast, Tippi Hedren aside, are god awful. They seem like nice guys in the making-of, but that doesn't exactly make 'em Gielgud either. In fairness to them they're playing the most cliché bunch of roles you ever did see, and they throw themselves at the 'jock, bimbo, boyfriend etc blah blah blah' roles pretty hard, but they're still nails-down-chalkboard irritating. This is compounded by the fact that halfway through the movie they become split off from Josie and Steve, leaving us to watch them 'like, whatever' their way through most of the rest of the movie.
Then there's the nudity. Didn't I mention it before, oh yeah. Darkwolf has gratuitous nudity throughout the entirety of it's first half. I'm as red-blooded as the next human being, but the fact of the matter is that nudity/sex in horror is almost never sexy, it's always kind of awkward and clunky, maybe cos most of the cheaper flicks are directed by men? I dunno. Anyhow, Darkwolf goes unrepentantly for the 'hey, boobies!' audience from minute one (literally, the first scenes are in a strip club), and I really can't find any way of getting round the fact that the constant un-sexy nudity really detracts from the movie. If it was sexy, intimate or somehow more deep (like maybe if it was useful for rounding out characters in the limited timescale like in Hostel or Puppet Master) I wouldn't object to the nudity, and I don't on a 'ban this sick filth' type level, I just feel like the nudity is purely there for titillation and gets in the way of the plot progression.
Despite the payload of bad acting from the support cast, and the repeat showing of many boobies in a deeply un-sensuous workmanlike fashion, Darkwolf is fun. I liked the leads a great deal, especially Josie, and the movie's story is fresh and avoids becoming repetitive. I enjoyed it a lot despite it's obvious flaws, it's a silly, active and entertaining movie, and hopefully the crew will make some more creature features sooner or later, preferably without quite so much nudity (honest to god, this movie could've been ten/twenty minutes shorter without it) and the Friday the 13th style support cast.
Nothing unusual there then. Ahem. Darkwolf is played with a kind of leaden menace by horror's premier rotting corpse for hire Kane Hodder in a fashion that pretty much reminded me of Jason only he didn't have the mask on. Kane doesn't really do much other than throw people about (the wolfed-out version is played by someone else) and he does that well, so all's well there. Also, the lead good-guys Josie and Steve are acted well, and have a genuine on screen chemistry that makes any of the movie they're in a load of laughs.
Still, the rest of the cast, Tippi Hedren aside, are god awful. They seem like nice guys in the making-of, but that doesn't exactly make 'em Gielgud either. In fairness to them they're playing the most cliché bunch of roles you ever did see, and they throw themselves at the 'jock, bimbo, boyfriend etc blah blah blah' roles pretty hard, but they're still nails-down-chalkboard irritating. This is compounded by the fact that halfway through the movie they become split off from Josie and Steve, leaving us to watch them 'like, whatever' their way through most of the rest of the movie.
Then there's the nudity. Didn't I mention it before, oh yeah. Darkwolf has gratuitous nudity throughout the entirety of it's first half. I'm as red-blooded as the next human being, but the fact of the matter is that nudity/sex in horror is almost never sexy, it's always kind of awkward and clunky, maybe cos most of the cheaper flicks are directed by men? I dunno. Anyhow, Darkwolf goes unrepentantly for the 'hey, boobies!' audience from minute one (literally, the first scenes are in a strip club), and I really can't find any way of getting round the fact that the constant un-sexy nudity really detracts from the movie. If it was sexy, intimate or somehow more deep (like maybe if it was useful for rounding out characters in the limited timescale like in Hostel or Puppet Master) I wouldn't object to the nudity, and I don't on a 'ban this sick filth' type level, I just feel like the nudity is purely there for titillation and gets in the way of the plot progression.
Despite the payload of bad acting from the support cast, and the repeat showing of many boobies in a deeply un-sensuous workmanlike fashion, Darkwolf is fun. I liked the leads a great deal, especially Josie, and the movie's story is fresh and avoids becoming repetitive. I enjoyed it a lot despite it's obvious flaws, it's a silly, active and entertaining movie, and hopefully the crew will make some more creature features sooner or later, preferably without quite so much nudity (honest to god, this movie could've been ten/twenty minutes shorter without it) and the Friday the 13th style support cast.