In the intro we meet a pregnant woman who is attacked by a werewolf. 18 years later the kid, Will, is about to graduate from high school. He's a loner, loser, smart, nerdy, goofy- the usual. His only friend is a horror movie buff. He's got a crush on a pretty and popular girl- as expected, who doesn't know he exists. Until one day that Eliana catches him staring and discovers that he's drawn her countless times. She invites him to a party were he's given ecstasy by some gang of wanna-be-thugs/tough guys. He starts seeing things and thinks he's being chased by werewolves. Over time he also starts thinking he might be a werewolf.
Meanwhile his dad meets a hot lady, K, who's a werewolf. Will discovers with the help of his friend that he's indeed a werewolf and ends up killing Eliana's violent boyfriend. Will and Eliana become closer when suddenly K shows up and wants to convince Will to let his werewolf nature out. He ends up confronting her.
There are two types of werewolves here- some ugly rubbery latex ones that look more like mutants and more impressive hairy ones. That said, they aren't really put to good use. They don't attack a lot of people, although at some point we discover a school basement full of victims.
The romance or rather the sexual tension is well handled. Eliana represents temptation- and she's very tempting, although not much happens between the two. She falls for him too suddenly. At times the conversations between these two are bizarre. He'll talk about lycanthropy and she'll answer in sexual/romance terms.
Ordinarily I despise movies that abuse of the horror genre for some other purpose- vampire comedies, zombie romance, etc. This is more of a werewolf romance we are told. It's definitely not a werewolf horror movie, but it's not a romance movie entirely either. This movie has some horror, some romance, but it also has a social message-and a good one at that. So I can forgive that it isn't horror. The script is smart and, well, there is a lot of script here. There are a lot of voice-overs by Will where he's philosophizing about life in high school and after, about human nature, about free will, etc. In fact there are too many voice overs. Much is made of the animal nature in man versus the civilizing/socializing of that nature. There are plenty of symbols in that regard. Will is very bored and his life is dull apparently because he has lived by the rules and hasn't let his animal nature run wild. I'm not sure we need the message that folks should stop acting civilized and just follow their instincts. But the deeper social criticism and message of this movie is a good one- to value relationship more instead of avoiding them. No doubt scientific and technological development haven't exactly led us to be better people. On the contrary, people are looking for no drama, no strings attached relationships. In order to avoid complications we are avoiding each other altogether rather than developing and maturing precisely through relationship and commitments.
We are told in the making-off feature that the writer/director is some experienced veteran although IMDb shows this as being is first major work. In a way then it's understandable that this movie tries to do more than it can, that the writer wants to overwhelm us with his ideas, that this movie is unfocused. What I can't forgive though is the annoying, awful overuse of music. As if there weren't enough talk and voice overs, repeatedly we get loud music with lyrics that are allegedly relevant to the moment. It reminds you of the 90s when movie makers were more interested in selling you the soundtrack CD instead of making a decent movie.
Most of the time I hate a movie like this- it makes use of an established and respected name (and The Howling I is in my opinion the best werewolf movie ever made), it doesn't give us a lot of horror, it has a somewhat moralizing message, etc. But at least this one is smart and doesn't treat the audience like morons. It has a likable and attractive cast- in particular Ivana Milicevic who is gorgeous and devastatingly hot. This writer/director has some potential if he learns to moderate himself and finds better vehicles for his message.
Meanwhile his dad meets a hot lady, K, who's a werewolf. Will discovers with the help of his friend that he's indeed a werewolf and ends up killing Eliana's violent boyfriend. Will and Eliana become closer when suddenly K shows up and wants to convince Will to let his werewolf nature out. He ends up confronting her.
There are two types of werewolves here- some ugly rubbery latex ones that look more like mutants and more impressive hairy ones. That said, they aren't really put to good use. They don't attack a lot of people, although at some point we discover a school basement full of victims.
The romance or rather the sexual tension is well handled. Eliana represents temptation- and she's very tempting, although not much happens between the two. She falls for him too suddenly. At times the conversations between these two are bizarre. He'll talk about lycanthropy and she'll answer in sexual/romance terms.
Ordinarily I despise movies that abuse of the horror genre for some other purpose- vampire comedies, zombie romance, etc. This is more of a werewolf romance we are told. It's definitely not a werewolf horror movie, but it's not a romance movie entirely either. This movie has some horror, some romance, but it also has a social message-and a good one at that. So I can forgive that it isn't horror. The script is smart and, well, there is a lot of script here. There are a lot of voice-overs by Will where he's philosophizing about life in high school and after, about human nature, about free will, etc. In fact there are too many voice overs. Much is made of the animal nature in man versus the civilizing/socializing of that nature. There are plenty of symbols in that regard. Will is very bored and his life is dull apparently because he has lived by the rules and hasn't let his animal nature run wild. I'm not sure we need the message that folks should stop acting civilized and just follow their instincts. But the deeper social criticism and message of this movie is a good one- to value relationship more instead of avoiding them. No doubt scientific and technological development haven't exactly led us to be better people. On the contrary, people are looking for no drama, no strings attached relationships. In order to avoid complications we are avoiding each other altogether rather than developing and maturing precisely through relationship and commitments.
We are told in the making-off feature that the writer/director is some experienced veteran although IMDb shows this as being is first major work. In a way then it's understandable that this movie tries to do more than it can, that the writer wants to overwhelm us with his ideas, that this movie is unfocused. What I can't forgive though is the annoying, awful overuse of music. As if there weren't enough talk and voice overs, repeatedly we get loud music with lyrics that are allegedly relevant to the moment. It reminds you of the 90s when movie makers were more interested in selling you the soundtrack CD instead of making a decent movie.
Most of the time I hate a movie like this- it makes use of an established and respected name (and The Howling I is in my opinion the best werewolf movie ever made), it doesn't give us a lot of horror, it has a somewhat moralizing message, etc. But at least this one is smart and doesn't treat the audience like morons. It has a likable and attractive cast- in particular Ivana Milicevic who is gorgeous and devastatingly hot. This writer/director has some potential if he learns to moderate himself and finds better vehicles for his message.