By: Heather Seebach
Fresh on the heels of his 2020 feature debut Scare Me, the latest from director Josh Ruben tackles the werewolf subgenre with the horror-comedy Werewolves Within, based on a Ubisoft video game of the same name. The game was a multi-player VR game about a medieval town under attack by a werewolf, and the players are tasked with figuring out which of the townspeople is the monster.
The film adaptation relocates the story to a small American town called Beaverfield, where a proposed pipeline has divided the townsfolk in a passive-aggressive battle of environmentalism vs capitalism. When a massive storm traps them all together, they quickly realize they are in danger from some kind of wild animal. Neighbor turns on neighbor as fear and paranoia run rampant.
The first 30 minutes or so drags a bit as we are introduced to the protagonist Finn, played by Sam Richardson. He is the new U.S. Forest ranger assigned to Beaverfield. He becomes swift friends with another newcomer, Cecily the "mail-person", played by Milana Vayntrub. We also meet all the weirdos inhabiting Beaverfield, from the rednecks and yuppies to the nutjob trapper who lives in the woods.
This introductory period of the film is largely carried by the charms of the effortlessly-likable Vayntrub. Where the film really gets going, however, is when this colorful cast of eccentrics get holed up together in the local Inn and a hirsute whodunit emerges. What - or who - is picking them off? In the classic Clue tradition, everyone has a motive and the question constantly lingers: is there even a werewolf at all?
Much of this film reminds me of the 1974 Amicus production The Beast Must Die, another werewolf whodunit about a bunch of contentious assholes stuck in a house together, trying to figure out who is actually a werewolf. I make this comparison as a sincere compliment; frankly, the world could use more werewolf murder mysteries! This one is far more of a comedy, of course. Expect less Peter Cushing and more toothless crackheads.
At its lowest point, Werewolves Within feels like a another middling horror-comedy trying to be Shaun of the Dead but then it taps into something special in the middle act. It finds its groove as the characters self-destruct and the mystery thickens. Even the humor improves as the film goes on. The character development is scattered at times but the film ultimately pulls it all together into one fun entry in an underappreciated subgenre.
