***A town of werewolves in the Northeast with Jason Momoa***
A popular teenager in the Northeast (Lucas Till) discovers that he’s a werewolf and escapes to the road after a tragedy at home. Upon getting a tip from Lemmy (John Pyper-Ferguson), he ends up in Lupine Ridge where he obtains a job at a farm and develops a relationship with a young bar owner (Merritt Patterson), which offends the wolfish town leader (Jason Momoa). Stephen McHattie plays the friendly farmer who takes the boy under his wings.
The creatively titled “Wolves” (2014) is a quality werewolf flick that’s reminiscent of the Marvel comic book Werewolf by Night. (Even the werewolves resemble Don Perlin’s versions a little). It has elements of The Howling franchise, but with better production values than the sequels, as well as a dash of “Twilight” (2008) and “The Messengers” (2007). (I hate mentioning “Twilight” because it will automatically turn off loads of people, but I mean the good aspects of that infamous movie).
“Wolves” has the right choices for the main cast, enough gore, some decent action, beautiful women, notable songs and exquisite Ontario locations with great nighttime sylvan ambiance. Yes, it’s thoroughly comic booky, but it’s well made for what it is and delivers the goods. I saw the theatrical version, but I heard the unrated version is a vast improvement with additional exposition.
The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes and was shot in Ontario in the greater Toronto area.
GRADE: B+
