Samhain Project 5: Werewolves

Frank Grillo is not suffering from a shortage of work these days.  This is mostly a good thing.  Steven C. Miller's low budget Werewolves, which saw a limited theatrical run,  is an example of the good side of that fact.  This is the second werewolf movie I've written about in a short time period, and if you have complaints, you'll have to take it up with grievance department of the Samhain Project.  But they're busy this time of year.  Keep that in mind. 

This is actually a sci-fi sorta werewolf movie however.  Some sort of lunar issue has developed, so that whenever there's a supermoon, all exposed to the moonlight become werewolves.  Now the world has some other global shit to worry about.  This species just can't win.

In what could have been a positive light, can you think of anything else that's uniting us?  Well, actually, the gun-nut neighbor to Grillo's character, who lives with his widowed sister-in-law and her daughter, is a major problem in and out of human form, so I guess that we remain divided.  But I digress. 

Doomsday prepping on a Purge-style scale takes place as the supermoon approaches, and Grillo is a CDC pandemic expert who looks like the Punisher, so much like Jimmy in Mi Familia, he's "got shit to do".  The shared home is a fortress, priority one.  His other priority, under the supervision of Lou Diamond Phillips, Grillo and crew are working on an answer to this freakish biological-lunar problem. 

There is some nice character development as Grillo's character and sister-in-law are still united in grief over his firefighter brother, her husband, who died during the first supermoon event.  She has an adorable daughter she has to protect, while her brother-in-law is off saving the world, and Ifenesh Hadera makes a hell of an action mom when it comes down to the blows being exchanged. 

I am definitely not a big spoiler guy, but you didn't expect the lab work to come off without a hitch, did ya?  Katrina Law makes a good foil to Grillo who has to help ol' Frank battle across a werewolf infested city to get home to his unconventional family.  It's a solid pairing, well illustrated, as the whole low budget affair actually is, in its short run time. 

There's just a little bit of non-irritating CGI used during the transformation sequences, but otherwise the creature work is accomplished by monster wunderkinds Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.  These dudes have won awards and did yeoman's work here. 

Werewolves has some excellent creepy shots, keeps the intensity rolling, and for its limited scope, gives you a lot of bang for its buck.