Monday, July 5, 2021

Werewolves Within

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In case you haven’t seen the intro from my entry dated 1/26/19 (it’s in my archives whenever you want to read it), I’m no longer going to review every single movie I see.  I’m going to review one, with the occasional bonus, and just give ratings for the rest from now on (unless I decide to pick it up again in the future).  You can always ask me why I gave the ratings for the films without reviews though (via comments or the e-mail addresses under the ‘About Me’ section).
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Werewolves Within                                                      OK/G
The new werewolf film directed by Josh Ruben, who also starred in and directed Scare Me, a film I wasn’t too fond of---the concept may have been fine, but I don’t see why it couldn’t have been an audio tale if we just watched the characters tell stories without any of it being shown to us.  This film is based on a videogame (?) and is being described as a werewolf whodunit horror-comedy.  In it, a group of people in a small town band together at a local inn during a snowstorm after several attacks have occurred.  It’s pretty obvious right away who the ‘who’ is in the whodunit part (their rationale is somewhat clever though), and it’s definitely more of a comedy than horror film, some of the comedy being a bit too tongue-in-cheek for me.  I think it’s ultimately more of an ensemble film, with a body count, and the werewolf isn’t seen until the end, looking kind of like Teen Wolf (yes, the Michael J. Fox film), making me better appreciate the scenes where the werewolf is just implied.  At least it actually is a werewolf film though, because, for a bit, I thought it was going to go the same route as The Wolf of Snow Hollow and not technically be a lycanthrope feature (that Jim Cummings film isn’t bad though and you can read my review for it here---https://vampireclown82.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-wolf-of-snow-hollow.html).  This review sure made it seem like I disliked this movie, which isn’t true, it did work as an ensemble film and there may have been a bit of fun to it, but it was still disappointing because good (or even great) werewolf movies are rare and I was really anticipating this would be one of them (I recently posted an entry for one of my other blogs containing a list of my favorite werewolf films and books here---https://tenbestlists82.blogspot.com/2021/06/ten-best-werewolf-moviesbooks.html).  Sure, it may be better with another viewing and after I read other opinions on it, even though I shouldn’t go by other opinions despite changing my thoughts in the past, but, as of now, I can’t say this is one of my favorite werewolf flicks.  7/3/2021

Bonus review:

Charlotte                                                                     EH
Charlotte:  The Return                                                EH
Thinking this was an evil doll movie (with a sequel) that somehow bypassed my radar, I decided to check it out.  Charlotte does contain a doll, yes (or two), but it’s really an anthology film presented as stories on a TV the doll forces a tied-up babysitter (which we don’t see happen) to watch.  Now, I’m not sure if the doll’s name is actually Charlotte, or if she even has a name, but I do remember the name mentioned in the first segment containing no doll (well, voodoo dolls).  And I would be willing to turn a blind eye to the bit of false advertising since I do love anthology films as well, if it was actually a good one.  It is a low-budget feature, as you probably guessed, mainly due to the fact it’s unknown (I only recognized one face throughout the entire film that won’t be recognizable to all), but low-budget certainly never means unworthy.  There are 8 tales in this 80-something-minute film and only two truly stood out for me---one involving girl scouts, the other involving a movie theater---but even they weren’t so spectacular to recommend the film; even one tale involving another doll felt completely empty and a bit anticlimactic.  Even though I wasn’t crazy about Charlotte, I saw that the sequel, Charlotte:  The Return, was also free (both on Tubi, y’all!) and wasn’t that long (even less than 80-minutes), so I figured, why not?  The first segment was actually kind of dark and made me hopeful for the rest of them, but, unfortunately, that was the only one that stood out for me this time.  I can’t even tell you exactly how many vignettes there are, but does it really matter if I’m not recommending it?  Again, there was only one recognizable face throughout the entire picture, and likely only recognizable to an esoteric audience.  Neither one were the worst films I’ve seen, but I say that about lots of movies, so don’t take that as any amount of praise, not even an iota, because they both still sucked (perhaps why they should’ve bypassed my radar), as anthology films and evil doll movies (more of the former but advertised as the latter).  6/28/2021

Other movies I've seen and their ratings (see above):

Blind Trust  >>>EH

Enforcement  >>>OK
   (In Danish with subtitles)

It!  The Terror from Beyond Space  >>>EH

The Monster That Challenged the World  >>>EH/OK

Paradise Cove   >>>OK

Road Head  >>>EH

Scooby-Doo!  Legend of the Phantosaur  >>>EH/OK

Scooby-Doo!  Where’s My Mummy?  >>>OK

The Winter Lake  >>>EH

Wish Upon a Star  >>>OK

---Sean O.
7/5/2021

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