'Werewolves Within' film review: Howling fun mash up of wit, mystery & gore
The whodunnit horror comedy 'Werewolves Within' (now playing in select theaters and on VOD starting 7/2) is a bloody hilarious mystery-monster flick.
In short: Forest ranger Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) leads a group of people in a small Vermont town who get trapped in a snowstorm only to suspect one of them is a werewolf. Milana Vayntrub, Sarah Burns, Michael Chernus, Cheyenne Jackson and Michaela Watkins also star.
Any comedy that can get a belly laugh within the first minute - even before the first credit rolls - is a legit comedy. The basic 'Poirot' whodunnit just throws together a motley cast of characters - and lets them point the finger at each other. 'Werewolves' boasts a deep cast of hilarious, eccentric small-town characters barricaded together - each wary that anyone could be a bloodthirsty werewolf among them. Richardson's Fred Rogers-adjacent forest ranger is an unexpected delight of a protagonist thrown right in the middle of a monster mystery. None of these characters seem ready to take on supernatural beast in the frozen wilderness, but the joy of 'Werewolves' is watching Ranger Finn try to assert his shaky leadership over a pack of towns folk all too ready to throw each other to the wolves.
With rare exception, the plight of the 'horror comedy' is to lean a bit too much toward laughs rather than thrills - and that's the case with 'Werewolves.' That said, 'Werewolves' is a ton of unexpected fun - but perhaps the script could have better balanced the horror aspects with the sharp comedic beats. The first two acts are generally played for laughs - which is entertaining, but does undermine the stakes of a story wherein a monster might be out killing residents. When the third act goes all-out bonkers with the violence - it's a bit dulled because all of it happens so fast and there's no genuine sense and danger.
Oh, and this movie is very loosely based on a video game of the same name, with the movie taking the basic premise of the game and adapting it as a film: a werewolf is terrorizing a small town and the player must guess which of the residents is the werewolf. Because the bar for video game adaptations is so low, 'Werewolves Within' finds itself as a serious contender for best video game adaptation of all time.
Final verdict: 'Werewolves Within' will endear itself to the audiences to find this horror-comedy gem of 2021 - and it will be worthy of any list of essential films to catch this year.
Score: 4/5
'Werewolves Within' is now playing in select theaters and available on VOD starting July 2. This horror comedy is rated R for some bloody violence, sexual references and language throughout and has a runtime of 97 minutes.
