Featured DVD Review: Wolf Moon

June 20, 2010

Wolf Moon - Buy from Amazon

Wolf Moon is the latest in a long line of werewolf movies that have come out recently. One could argue that this is a new golden age for one of the most recognizable movie monsters, except most of these movies have performed poorly with critics. Many have gone the direct-to-DVD. This film falls under the latter category, but will it also be eviscerated by critics?

A drifter, Dan, arrives in a small town and immediately catches the eye of the daughter of a local rancher, Amy. His arrival also coincides with some gruesome murders and cattle mutilations. Turns out he is a werewolf, but he's a good werewolf and would never hurt Amy. Amy's father, John, doesn't like him because he's a drifter who is interested in his daughter. The local sheriff, Sam, is suspicious of him, because he's the new guy in town and the trouble started when he arrived. Furthermore, a werewolf hunter, Charles Thibodeaux, arrives in town having been tracking the killer werewolf since it killed his wife.

They have the wrong man, because there is another werewolf in town. An evil werewolf that goes by the name Darkman.

There have been a lot of movies made that people have argued are trying to take advantage of the Twilight phenomenon, some fairly, some unfairly. This movie definitely has some connections, including the heavy emphasis on the romance in the movie. Unfortunately, it also has the same lack of chemistry between the two leads. I understand that the director / co-writer Dana Mennie was trying to do something different with the genre by focusing on the characters rather than the action, but I think he misjudged a) the material he had, and b) the film's target audience. Firstly, these characters are not unique, nor are they terribly interesting. The romance between Dan and Amy is in no way compelling. The undercurrent of romance between Sam and John had potential, but was mostly left out. Bender / Darkman wasn't terrifying, but merely overacted, while Sid Haig plays yet another crazy man.

The special effects were good, given the film's $3 million budget, but they weren't given the focus they should have been given. (It would have also been an improvement if the movie wasn't so dark that one had trouble following the action.) The film's running time is two hours, not counting credits, which would be fine if it had an epic sized story to tell, but for the most part it just feels hopelessly padded.

There is only one extra on the DVD, an audio commentary with Dana Mennie and Max Ryan. They maintain the energy level needed, but they are a little too easy on the praise.

The Verdict

Wolf Moon is one of a flood of direct-to-DVD werewolf movies that have come out in recent years. It is not the worst such film I have seen, but the filmmakers seem to think they had more to work with than they actually did and the result if a bloated and unwieldy. The DVD does have an audio commentary track, but unless you are a huge fan of the genre, or of some of the actors in this movie, it is safely skippable.


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Filed under: Video Review, Wolf Moon