Werewolves Within: Movie Review

Hey cutie, welcome back! It’s time for another movie review!

Before that, look to the stars — errr, to The Darkness Beyond The Stars that is! The space horror anthology I edited and which came out this past August 31st.

Beyond this rock we call home, horror awaits. Meteors slash through the sky, illuminating terrors beyond our wildest imagination. In the furthest reaches of the coldest cosmic expanse, there are things waiting, whose very existence our minds are not equipped to comprehend.

Can you survive the final frontier? 

Featuring 15 stories from some of the best up-and-coming talents in the genre, The Darkness Beyond The Stars is an anthology of space-themed horror that seeks to twist humanity’s greatest aspirations into our greatest fears. This intergalactic collection of terror includes: alien flora threatening homesteaders, survivors of a psychic war facing a reckoning aboard a ship escaping Venus, a traitorous scientist is launched from an airlock but doesn’t die, a woman waking from hypersleep with no memory—but a very real sense of looming danger, and more.

Editor and author P.L. McMillan invites you to blast off with a collection of short stories that’ll teach you to fear the carnage of the cosmos. 

The Movie

Directed by Josh Ruben from a screenplay by Mishna Wolff, based on the video game of the same name from Red Storm Entertainment, Werewolves Within is a 2021 American mystery comedy horror film, starring Sam Richardson, Milana Vayntrub, George Basil, Sarah Burns, Michael Chernus, Catherine Curtin, Wayne Duvall, Harvey Guillén, Rebecca Henderson, Cheyenne Jackson, Michaela Watkins, and Glenn Fleshler.

Werewolves Within is the rare horror comedy that offers equal helpings of either genre -- and adds up to a whole lot of fun in the bargain.

— Rotten Tomatoes blurb

Werewolves Within follows forest ranger Finn Wheeler as he moves to the quaint little town of Beaverfield, where every resident is super quirky. As he gets to know the residents, we learn they are divided over a pipeline that has been proposed. One night, there’s a blizzard and the power is knocked out, forcing everyone to shelter in a lodge. At that point, the mystery takes off as the bodies begin to pile up like the snow outside.

The Review

This movie will make you howl — with laughter that is.

Okay I’ll show myself out.

I had no idea this was based on a video game until I was doing my usual research for my review, which I thought was pretty neat.

I really enjoyed all the weird characters and the clever dialogue — gotta love all the fun one-liners from postlady Cecily. I just felt like the characters had the right amount of goof without being too over the top, if that makes sense. In addition to the excellent acting, I really had fun with how crazy the ending got. Did I manage to guess who was a werewolf? Yes. I am excellent at my job.

My only thing was that I felt like the horror and comedy was a little underdone. It didn’t make me laugh out loud, though I was amused at many scenes, nor did the horror give me any chills. So I guess it wasn’t that amazing of a whodunnit, but it was still a fun movie to have for a night in. So if you’re looking for a decent popcorn flick with werewolves, why not check out Werewolves Within and let me know what you think?

6/10

x PLM

p.s. don’t forget all about my free to read page, where you can read some PLM stories when you get that hunger for horror.