Category: Werewolf horror, reboot/remake of existing IP
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The government of the state of Oregon over in the US must be tearing their hair out! How are they ever going to attract anyone to come visit when there are so many horror movies, shows and games set there (and all that's without mentioning the residents). There was Longlegs, there was also the open-world zombie game Days Gone (a low-key classic in my opinion) and now we have this - a movie about a werewolves in an Oregon forest!
What attracted me to this when I saw it on my Netflix was Leigh Whannel's name - he has been involved with numerous high-quality horror films (the Saw and Insidious franchises come to mind), so I thought I'd give this one a spin - if indeed one can spin movies.
Is it any good? Find out after the plot!
The plot:
The movie starts off with a shot of a forest and text stating that in 1995, a hiker went missing as they succumbed to a virus called "Hill Fever" by the locals, or "Mouth Of The Wolf" by the indigenous peoples. We then see Grady (Sam Jaeger) on a hunting trip through the woods of Oregon with his young son Blake (Zac Chandler) in order to teach him how to be a hunter and to survive not just forest environments, but in life in general. Of course, Blake ignores his father's advice and wanders off away from his dad at the most inopportune time - a scary and mysterious creature much more threatening than the deer they have in their sights is close by.
Luckily, also nearby is deer blind up a tree which the two get to and close off, right before they hear the footsteps and see the mist off the breath of whatever-that-thing-is. As it departs, Grady very briefly sees it in his sights and takes a shot which he then reports over CB radio later that night to a friend, Dan, further scarring Blake (already scarred by his dad's bad temper) who is overhearing the conversation .
Fast forward 30 years and Blake (Christopher Abbott) lives in the big smoke as a writer and awesome dad to Ginger (Matilda Firth). While it seems Blake has got his dad's temper, he also shares a close bond with his daughter which is handy because his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) does the corporate slave thing as an journalist, a job that is straining their marriage and family bond. Blake gets a death certificate from the Oregon government regarding his missing father who is presumed dead, as no body has been found.
The family then take a trip up to Blake's dad's place in the Oregon woods. While Blake is familiar with the woods, some things have changed a bit which he finds out when he comes across Derek (Benedict Hardie), the son of Dan, the guy Grady was talking to in the beginning. Derek informs Blake that he is on the wrong driveway, but will happily take them on a shortcut to his dad's place - requiring Charlotte to get out and in to the backseat. Derek notices how much Blake has changed since their early years, while Charlotte is really uncomfortable about a stranger with a gun being in close proxiity to her and her daughter.
As they drive down and make small talk, Blake suddenly swerves the truck to avoid running over a bipedal humanoid thing standing in the middle of the road, causing the truck to careen downhill and finally come to rest in some trees a few metres off the ground. As everyone comes to, Derek undoes his seatbelt and drops down to the ground, motionless. Scared witless about what he saw and wanting to protect his family, he is scared even more when he sees the humanoid creature get stuck in to Derek's body. Wouldn't you know, the creature also tries to attack Blake while he's still stuck in his seat and shatters the car window in the process.
As the creature drags Derek off, Blake uses the respite to get his family out of their immediate predicament. Before anyone can relax, the creature is finished with Derek and wants more fresh meat, but thank the plot gods, Blake's dad's house is nearby. The family make a run for it and get inside just in time to keep whatever-that-thing-is at bay.
Inside, Blake barricades the front door and starts the generator while tending to his family (including pacifying his annoying daughter). The first sign of trouble is that Blake can smell his dad's dried meat collection, and then loses a tooth while chewing on it which he puts down to a broken jaw (despite suffering no obvious injury before). His wife then notices Blake's arm bleeding, but mentions "that doesn't look like a glass cut" as she patches him up. Soon after, Blake becomes REALLY thirsty and hears loud thuds. He goes upstairs and finds the thudding noise is actually from a spider walking up a wall - how can he hear such a small and unnoticable thing? He now has a heightened sense of hearing to go along with his heightened sense of smell.
Another attempted home invasion by the humanoid creature takes place as it reaches in and grabs Blake's leg through the doggy door, the attack fended off when Charlotte smashes the creature's arm with a hammer. Resting after the commotion, Blake wakes up and notices he is losing teeth, losing hair and losing the ability to understand language, while his own speech comes out as mumbled. It is here we get this awesome effect of the camera panning between Charlotte and Blake's points of view so we can see and hear how they see and hear (and misunderstand). Just to top the effect off, Charlotte takes Blake's bandage off and we can see Blake's arm has now changed to look more lycanthropic. Charlotte looks on in disbelief as Blake scratches at and chews on his own arm!
Realising she needs to step up if she's going to keep her family together, Charlotte notices that there is a ute next to the barn that looks like it hasn't been driven for a while. Being careful not to make TOO much noise (ha!), Blake and Ginger sit in the car while Charlotte uses a jump-starter kit to get the battery going - and wouldn't you know it, right as they're about to get going, the creature (who we now see is a werewolf) is on the bonnet of the car! It reaches right through the windscreen, but its arm gets stuck which gives the family enough time to climb up on the greenhouse to escape. The werewolf again shows its jumping prowess, able to leap far enough to scratch the fabric and put Ginger in danger. Despite his diminishing cognition, Blake jumps off the greenhouse so the werewolf chases him, allowing his family to escape back into the house.
With the family back in the house, Blake returns, but is slowly giving in to his animal instinct and menacingly approaches Charlotte (but not before vomiting up a finger). Regaining some sense, he goes to leave the house in order to not be able to attack his own family, but the werewolf takes the opportunity to go on the attack itself and in the ensuing fight, Blake rips open the werewolf's throat. Blake looks at a tattoo on the werewolf's arm and realises it is Grady - his dad! No wonder the Oregon government couldn't find his dad's body.
But werewolves will do werewolf things, including attacking their own family, so to that end, Charlotte and Ginger escape to the barn. Blake digs his way in, but gets caught in a leg-trap that Charlotte had laid out. In a homage to Saw (a movie also directed by Whannel), Blake chews through his own leg while Charlotte and Ginger escape and then drags himself outside.
Outside the barn, Charlotte and Ginger run back to the site where the truck crashed earlier and find the same deer blind that Blake and his dad took shelter in all those years ago, all the while being chased by Blake who now moves using quadrupedal motion.
Up in the deer blind, we see the fog come off the breath of Blake over the top of the door and when Blake pops his head up, Charlotte points her gun, but hesitates to take the shot. Ginger senses that Blake is in pain and wants it all to end, which Charlotte finally obliges to when Blake lunges at her. On the ground, the family comfort the dying Blake and the movie ends when Charlotte and Ginger overlooking the same valley that Grady took Blake to at the beginning of the film.
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I appreciate Leigh Whannel's horror sensibilities - to the point that I think he is an understated master of psychological horror - but I really get the sense here that he was curtailed somewhat. Maybe he was forced by the studio to include more dialogue with Ginger.
"Leigh, baby. You know what the test audience said? Include more of the kid!"
"But Ginger already has enough dialogue and it's clear she has a connection with her father and the dramatic twist at the end when she finds out she..."
"No, no, NO! The audiences said they want more of the sweet-cute kid that did the audition! And they definitely don't want her to get hurt! YOU HEAR ME! NOT GET HURT!!!"
Because fuck me, the character of Ginger was annoying more than anything else. It just felt like she was an NPC saying confected lines, rather than a character trying to convey the awful reality she now finds herself in. I get that they had to include a parent/child theme to make the connection between Grady and Blake, and then Blake and Ginger, but I am almost at the point that the film would have worked just fine (if not better) had Ginger not been there (with the exception of a couple of moments). In fact, the best moments with Ginger came in the last third of the movie when there was barely any dialogue. Maybe for this family trip, they should have left her at grandma's...
To completely change topic - one thing that most creature horror movies fail with is keeping the creature and its capabilities consistent throughout. For example how in Jeepers Creepers: Reborn, The Creeper is so deadly and dangerous that it can throw a projectile at a target from miles away, but this same creature has trouble with some teenagers behind a door? In that vain, a similar thing happens here - a creature that somehow CAN jump 10 metres in the air, shatter a car window and reach in far enough to scratch someone to cause them to get infected, but can't burst through a wooden door being held by a couple of hinges and a lock? That's one more thing (aside from the role of Ginger) that made me feel like this was a story written by a Hollywood team, rather than
A bit more exposition would have also been nice. How did this all come about? Why only Oregon? Where is the wolf/man that bit Blake's dad? Can there be only one wolf/man at one time?
But criticisms of the plot aside, how did I feel while and after watching this movie? It was OK in some parts, but I got to the one hour mark and thought "there's still more left?". Luckily, not too much more left, but if I can get through Anora and There Will Be Blood without caring for time, the fact I do care for time is an indication the movie has some issues.
I have to say, the sound design for this movie was top notch - that spider scene really shone through. The make-up and transformation of Christopher Abbott was also a sight to behold - I can only imagine how many hours he spent in the chair getting made up each shooting day!
And this is part of a cinematic universe? Apparently so. That's what the IMDB tells me.
STAR RATING: 3/5
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