3 Short Paragraphs: Werewolves Within

 2021, John Ruben (Scare Me) -- download

The first thing I noticed in the trailer was the Ubisoft logo on the screen. Huh? A werewolf mystery comedy doesn't sound like the typical Ubisoft video game. And then I saw the game it was based on, essentially the common party game called Werewolf or Mafia, where party goers try to convince each other that they are NOT the villain. So video game based on common domain party game. But sure Ubisoft, if you want to claim the game as yours, you do your usually evil you. Also, according to a coworker, I do not play the game very well, despite having never played the party game nor the video game. But he was referring to some workplace politics games I am forced to play, and based on recent events, he is entirely correct.

In hindsight, I really enjoyed Ruben's entry movie, something we watched during the IRL Horror Show, 2020's edition of 31 Days of Horror. It affected me, even if I didn't always like what these effects were. This entry is a much more palatable reflection of the current state of horror fiction, drawing not only upon the game source material, but a lot of horror movie tropes that investigating players of the game would be damned into drawing upon, to the benefit to their fate, or not. Stylishly, it is rather enjoyable in having some fun dialogue and character choices, without overdoing a desire to impress us. That is me saying I rather liked that the main characters are not stereotypical Hollywood choices.

Finn (Sam Richardson, The Tomorrow War) is a park ranger accepting a job in some remote town while dealing with a not so obvious breakup with his girlfriend. Well, not obvious to him, but astoundingly obvious to anyone else, including the cute, friendly mailperson Cecily (Milana Vayntrub, Lily the AT&T Girl) who introduces Finn around town, and to all the freaks that live there. And then it becomes quite apparent that there is a werewolf in the community, just as they are cutoff from the rest of civilization. As with the game, it becomes a contest of accusing each other, as more are killed off. Until it becomes pretty fucking obvious who the werewolf is.

The tropes tell us it had to be Finn or Cecily. The way it is played makes us wonder whether they would go the way of The Wolf of Snow Hollow and end up faking out the whole werewolf story. But no, there is a werewolf, a really furry beast that tears out organs and eats townsfolk, worthy of death or not, and could surprise us if we weren't paying attention. Either way, the fun of the movie comes from the way the non-standard characters are played, not in the way standard tropes are played out standardly.