#9 - Werewolf: The Beast Among us

Continuing the streak of movies I haven't seen before...

MOVIE:  Werewolf: The Beast Among Us

PLOT:  A werewolf is pestering the countryside near a quaint village possibly in the 18th or 19th centuries.  A team of werewolf hunters comes to town to dispatch the beast.

GOOD POINTS:  This is exactly the type of B-movie horror that I love.  First, Werewolves are my favorite monsters.  Second, they didn't try to make this anything but a B-movie.  The acting was solid (except for probably the lead werewolf hunter), there was a smattering of known stars (the likes of nia peeples and stephen rea) mixed in with a bunch of unknowns trying to make a mark.  The special effects were your basic CGI effects, but where are you going to find real werewolves to play the roles outside of transylvania?  Besides, real werewolves ask exorbitant prices, as everyone knows, so only the A-list movies can afford the real ones.  The plot was full of action, there was your basic "who the hell is the werewolf?" scenario (always seems to be the same one), and it worked fine for the movie because I actually had no idea who the hell it was til the werewolf itself found out!  I even went by my standard rule, always assume it's the least likely person, and that's usually the bad guy!  And I was WRONG this time!  :-o  lol

BAD POINTS:  It is just a B-movie.  Not really any plot surprises except the identity of the werewolfy.  Otherwise just your standard werewolf movie.  Setting this time was a couple centuries back, they had guns but still lit their homes with torches, which seems reasonable enough.  There was this house in the beginning that had torches on either side of the front door that reminded me of my house in Minecraft which made me laugh and took me out of the movie a bit, but I am pretty sure it wasn't intentional.  lol  Other than that, no surprises here.  Could have done without "flamethrower chick."  I don't know where she managed to find a working flamethrower in the 18th century.  Eh whatever.  It's rarely used, so not a big deal.  Also, no nudity again!  in a b-movie?  What the hell is the world coming to.  Ripped apart bodies laying in the street, organs spilling out, but no boobs?  Is this what we are teaching our children?

IMPRESSIONS:  I liked it.  Good popcorn movie.  In fact, I ate popcorn while watching it.  lol  Lots of blood and gore, exploding heads, monsters aplenty, human and animal, couple hot chicks for eye candy, can't really go wrong with this movie.  I think if the lead werewolf hunter (and maybe the werewolf) had been cast with another actor, maybe someone a little more famous, we might have had a series out of this.  I would probably watch this again sometime, maybe next october.  I love a good werewolf movie.

SECOND REVIEW:  Call this one #9.5.  I originally planned to review "Parents" tonight, an 80's movie starring Randy Quaid, one because I love randy's quaid acting skills and I didn't think I had seen it before, but about halfway through I began to realize I may have seen it a long time back.  Or maybe i just caught the latter half of it way back in my late teens when it came out, I don't know, but it began to seem very familiar as i was watching it.  In any case, let me sum up in case you are interested, because I know i haven't reviewed it before...

Parents:  A boy and his parents move to a new town.  He's a weird boy, he goes to a weird school, he has weird friends, but that's nothing compared to his parents.  They love meat!  They have so much of it, the boy begins to wonder where it all comes from.  And then he finds out...

This movie was done back in the 80's and was set in the 50's, so it's definitely dated material by now, but they had an aerial shot of some houses that looked like it actually HAD been shot in the 50's, so it was sort of cool to see what houses and things looked like back then.  Not like it was a thousand years ago or anything, but it set the mood for the movie.  I wasn't too keen on the movie, either.  Randy Quaid did an awesome job, was definitely high-end scary shit, but the movie was predictable and the main character is a ten year old boy, so it's a little hard to identify with him.  I suppose this might appeal to young teens, maybe the twilight crowd, if they're weird enough, but as an adult, all I could really manage was to admire Randy Quaid's acting talents and marvel at how freakin weird all the people in this movie turned out to be.  I am pretty sure everyone in the 50's and 80's was nuts.  Including the colon!  More of a dark comedy than anything else, i suppose.

OTHER NEWS:  No gnews is good gnews, with Gary Gnu, as they used to say.  I'm feeling a smidgen better, hearing the weather should be warming up a few degrees next week so it looks good for fall pictures, and nobody pissed me off today!  I was afraid i'd have to go on a three-state killing spree.  Yea, I know, AGAIN?  The voices in my head said the same thing.  Even they are tired of the bloodshed.  You know when even the crazy parts of you are getting tired of the sheer craziness, it's time to call it a day!  And so I am.

See you guys tomorrow for #10.