WEREWOLVES WITHIN (2021)

WEREWOLVES WITHIN (2021)

Tagline: A whodunnit with teeth.

(Mystery, Dark Humor, Horror) [R]

Well, we're having a good old-fashioned sleepover.
--With guns though
With guns yes…. 

In this one there is a guy named Sam Parker (played by Wayne Duvall) who is basically the same character as Hoskins from JURASSIC WORLD, only he’s way more into oil and wants a pipeline to go right through the small town of Beaverfield. The town itself is massively divided over the pipeline and this causes some hidden resentment among the quirky residents. Finn Wheeler (played by Sam Richardson (best known for THE TOMORROW WAR) is the new forest ranger in town and he is all about bear spray, struggling to find his manhood, and Cecily Moore (played by Milana Vaytrub probably best known as the AT&T commercial lady, if you are like me and don’t watch THIS IS US) the towns oil postwoman. Cecily is showing Finn the ropes when the town starts getting hit by grisly murders and the sneaking suspicion that it’s a freakin werewolf. 

First off let me say we get some great performances in this especially out of Catherine Curtin (best known for STRANGER THINGS) who plays Jeanine Sherman, a woman who runs the town's biggest (or at least most beloved) lodge. Sarah Burns is nuts and Gwen, Sam is fantastic as Finn and Michaela Watkins (probably best known for doing voice work for the animated TV show American Dad) is bonkers as Trisha Anderson. The rest of the cast is also good so from that perspective, this movie is pretty solid. 

Story-wise I guess you could say this is pretty basic, almost every werewolf movie has a werewolf at some point and many of them involve spending at least some time trying to figure out who the heck it is. In this one, the reveal is so slow it’s almost annoying and after about 20 minutes or so with this town's people you are pretty much done with most of them. The dialog offers some funny moments and as this thing moves along, but the jokes do feel rushed almost like they were trying to slip them in without you knowing. For horror fans, this is not overly gory or really all that bloody, but there are some “wow” moments where you are like – “okay, that was unexpected” TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL style. 

In case you didn’t know, this is another movie that is based on a video game and I have to see the movies trying to do that lately have been ridiculously awesome (MONSTER HUNTER, MORTAL KOMBAT, SONIC, etc.). Because this is a werewolf movie it automatically gets an extra point with me. I LOVE werewolf flicks, but the overall feel of this one, and the ending left a lot to be desired and I really feel that this one had a lot of opportunities to ramp up the humor and failed. Ultimately the main characters as well as they are doing their jobs, just are not that likable. This sucks because I really wanted to. What I don’t buy from some of the reviews is that the movie went out of its way to be PC. I really didn’t sense that any town is going to have people of different types and backgrounds and I think this cast and the script did a great job of reflecting that without trying to be preachy.  

I won’t give anything away here, but I advise walking into this more like you are going to watch KNIVES OUT than an actual horror comedy and you might just have a bit of fun. Overall this is a 5 out of 7 for me, it did take me a couple of viewings to arrive at this score.

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