Wolves

A popular teenager in the Northeast (Lucas Till) discovers that he's a werewolf and escapes to the road after a tragedy at home. Upon getting a tip from Lemmy (John Pyper-Ferguson), he ends up in Lupine Ridge where he obtains a job at a farm and develops a relationship with a young bar owner (Merritt Patterson), which offends the wolfish town leader (Jason Momoa). Stephen McHattie plays the friendly farmer who takes the boy under his wings. The creatively titled "Wolves" (2014) is a quality werewolf flick that's reminiscent of the Marvel comic book Werewolf by Night. (Even the werewolves resemble Don Perlin's versions a little). It has elements of The Howling franchise, but with better production values than the sequels, as well as a dash of "Twilight" (2008) and "The Messengers" (2007). (I hate mentioning "Twilight" because it will automatically turn off loads of people, but I mean the good aspects of that infamous movie). "Wolves" has the right choices for the main cast, enough gore, some decent action, beautiful women, notable songs and exquisite Ontario locations with great nighttime sylvan ambiance. Yes, it's thoroughly comic booky, but it's well made for what it is and delivers the goods. I saw the theatrical version, but I heard the unrated version is a vast improvement with additional exposition. The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes and was shot in Ontario in the greater Toronto area. GRADE: B+

This is a better than average Werewolf movie. For a fairly low budget film, the quality is surprisingly high. The special effects are also much better than you would expect from this type of movie. Jason Momoa is especially well cast as the head of the "Wolf Pack". He has the looks and the sheer physical presence to pull off this kind of role. Far less successful is Lucas Till.At this point in his career, he simply does not have the experience to carry an entire movie. He comes across like a bland "Ken Doll", than a character with a dark secret in his past. The script has a "been there done that" aspect to it. It steals elements from any number of previous movie sin this genre. Do not expect anything even remotely new or innovative here. If you like werewolf movies, this one is worth your while to watch.