This is a movie that is part of a 4-pack of movies that I picked up cheap. This one is noted as being the more recent one, with the other three being advertised as “classic” monster films. The four movies cover off the four classic monsters: this one covers werewolves, the next one covers vampires, the next one covers mummies, and the last one covers Frankenstein.
The plot of this movie is that a man who works as a photographer is having dreams about his mother’s death and potentially of being a werewolf, and we learn that his mother was seemingly killed by a wolf when he was a child. There also are some strange animalistic killings in the area. He then takes some pictures of his model who is attracted to him, and he has a friend who pops by every now and then. Eventually, they all hang out together when the model picks the lock on his apartment to let them in. While the friend and the model somewhat bond, it’s clear that the model is interested in the photographer, but then the friend is killed by some kind of beast, and we see images of a werewolf-like creature. The model and the photographer sleep together, and while hunting for the beast they enter a dark building and it is revealed that the werewolf is really the photographer dressed up in a cheap costume, having developed a split personality due to the trauma of losing his mother. We see him in the hospital and then it cuts to the model having become pregnant with his child and then deciding to raise it on her own, and at the end the photographer appears to apologize for not being able to be there for the child (implying that he died) but then the werewolf creature appears above the child’s cradle, and the movie ends.
This is a movie that has really, really terrible production values. Everything seems so very, very amateur, from the cinematography to the acting to the cheesy werewolf costume. I give them some credit for using it being cheap and cheesy in the plot itself as it turns out to be him in a cheap and cheesy costume, but for the entire movie that amateur image made it really, really difficult to get immersed in the work, and horror movies really need immersion to make them work. Some more amateur movies — like “The Blair Witch Project” — can make that work, but to make it work you need to have a premise and plot that can make us overlook the amateur presentation or, in the case of “The Blair Witch Project”, actually make that presentation the point of the movie, but this isn’t that sort of movie, so it really dragged me out of the movie.
I’m also not fond of the characters. The friend’s role is one that works pretty well for this sort of movie, but he’s an aside, not a main character. The photographer is played by the writer and director of the movie and despite being not a particularly attractive man gets to have the attractive model in love with him and the landlady or whatever explicitly state that he’s a very attractive man, but his looks and mannerisms don’t work for those sorts of superlatives. Beyond that, he’s not a very interesting or sympathetic character. The model is supposed to be more interesting, but she’s placed firmly in the “strong, aggressive woman” role which makes her grating, an impression that only softens when she gets pregnant and has to deal with the baby. So for most of the movie I didn’t like most of the characters, although I will admit that some of the interactions between the two are interesting, especially when they go to explore the dark house and she chides him for being afraid of the dark.
The ending also doesn’t work, mostly because it’s so ambiguous. Did he die in the hospital? Then is what we’re seeing his ghost or something? But if he didn’t, why was she and he both talking like he was never going to be able to interact with his child? And what was the point of having the threat of the werewolf there? It almost looks like a setup for a sequel that no one would want and wouldn’t follow from this ending anyway. Ending it with her decision to raise the child alone or even with his visitation as if he was a ghost would have worked so much better.
I can’t really get past the cheap production values and the uninteresting characters, even if there are decent moments in it. This is a movie that I won’t be watching again.