Werewolf by Night review

Get ready for Halloween with my Werewolf by Night review

Have you started watching scary movies to prep for Halloween yet? My Werewolf by Night review will get you in the mood for the season of spooks. Dropping today on Disney+, Werewolf by Night stars Gael Garcia Bernal as Jack Russel, a man who was cursed into becoming — you guessed it — a werewolf by night! Dun dun dunnn!! This 50-minute special presentation is based on a character from the Marvel Comics title of the same name.

Marvel Comics

In the comics, Jack Russell is a well-meaning traveler who struggles to keep control of his savage alter-ego (Umm, remind anyone of the Hulk?) while he does battle with characters that are more evil — and often, more horrifying — than he. Of course in the traditional Marvel manner our beloved werewolf eventually at first fights and then teams-up with (it’s a whole thing) other supernaturally powered heroes including Ghost Rider, Man-Thing (more on him in a sec) and Morbius the Living Vampire. Those legendary tales are a smorgasbord of horror that made adolescent-me giddy all the way to his slimy little gills. If you’ve read my earlier posts, you know that horror comics are what got me started in this whole crazy carnival of insanity that we call writing.

Moon Knight making an appearance in the Marvel Comics series Werewolf by Night

Plot

But this ain’t comics, is it sweethearts? This is a film. And motion pictures are a medium the folks at Marvel are getting way too good at. And, since this review wouldn’t be complete without a teaser of the Werewolf by Night plot, I’ll do my best to give one here without spoiling too much. (If you want to skip this part, then maybe a taste of the Werewolf by Night trailer is just what the witch doctor ordered.)

Werewolf by Night and Man-Thing from Marvel Comics

In short, the Disney+ special presentation takes a slightly different route than the comics. By boldly drawing inspiration from classic horror films from the 50s, Werewolf by Night creates a captivating stand-alone story that’s probably the scariest in the MCU. To compete for a mystical totem called a bloodstone, a group of vicious monster hunters are summoned to a creepy estate to do battle. There, they must prove their superiority over the others by catching and killing a monster, who devoted Marvel fans will recognize as Man-Thing. Although Jack is known as the fiercest monster hunter of them all, his secret affliction with lycanthropy immediately puts him at odds with the rest of the hunters. But that’s not all he’s hiding. When the plot twist is finally revealed, my horror lovin’ head exploded with all sorts of possibilities.

Rating

If you’re wondering about the Werewolf by Night rating, it’s TV-14. As mentioned above, the film embraces the horror genre more so than anything else in the MCU, although Doctor Strange 2: The Multiverse of Madness probably probably gives it a run for its money. It’s basically done for fun, but there are some scary tropes in Werewolf by Night. Think gothic settings with moody lighting. Mist creeps eerily across the floor. There’s an animated talking corpse. A murderous plant monster with fiery claws. Limbs are severed. Throats are ripped open. Blood squirts onto the camera lens. So, you know, maybe not the best film for young’ uns, is all.

Summary

Werewolf by Night is a clever and fast-paced tribute to the black and white horror films of yore. Marvel Studios goes a long way to make this film feel like something special, from the opening sequence in which the Marvel montage reel is sliced by off-camera claws, all the way to the inserted cue dots that pay homage to cinema’s classic roots. But the special presentation truly succeeds by departing from Marvel’s traditional superhero fare: namely family-centric characters dressed in colorful spandex while flaunting reality-bending powers. This is great news. With a trove of comics dating back to 1960s, Marvel has access to thousands of characters and stories that are as potentially as unique as this one. If nothing else, Werewolf by Night proves the Marvel Universe has legs. Which, by the way, are very, very hairy.

What people are saying

Werewolf By Night is a refreshing blast of the silly and the strange into the MCU. It’s a little bit Twilight Zone and a little bit Vincent Price, and a whole lot of fun." — Sarah Marrs, Laineygossip.com

Werewolf by Night is a neat, modern twist on the classic Universal horrors that sets up a whole corner of the MCU we’ve never seen before. — Ryan Leston, IGN

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