31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Night 30 - Wer

Wer

89 mins

Dir. William Brent Bell

2013/USA

Werewolf movies are one of the harder monster movies to portray well.  You have your American classics like Universal’s Wolfman, Howling, American Werewolf, and of course you have Paul Naschy’s tremendous out pouring of his portrayal of the tortured werewolf Waldemar Daninsky.  Add Dog Soldiers, Ginger Snaps and a few others sprinkled here and there, but the werewolf genre hasn’t had any strong contenders in probably almost 15 years.  Until along comes Wer.

Is Wer great because there hasn’t been any other good werewolf movies in a long time or is it just a good movie all around?  Probably a little of both.  It certainly is not without its faults, predictability and CGI blood splatter being its two strongest.  But it does have a lot of good going for it as well, as this one, while like I said can be predictable also spins an original tale on the lycanthropy genre.

An American family camping in France gets attacked by an unknown creature.  Dad is mauled, son is eaten alive, and the surviving mother is horribly disfigured (show in an unsettling hospital scene).  The police are scrambling to figure out what did this, at first an animal is obviously expected until the mother when describing the attacks calls it a he.  Then a manhunt goes on which brings in the huge and hairy Talan Gwynek.  This role is played by Brian Scott O’Connor, his only film role because I am pretty sure he is a real werewolf.  An American attorney decides she is going to represent Talan because there was no way this giant hairy gentle man could have committed these horrible crimes.  The defense claims  Talan is suffering from Poprphyria, which is the cause of his outward appearance.  He under goes some medical tests, one which places him under a strobe light and wouldn’t you know it, the werewolf comes out.  Now there is a giant werewolf running around a city in France killing anyone in his way, the police are trying to stop him and the stupid American attorney is left looking like an idiot. Because if it looks like a werewolf and smells like a werewolf, it’s probably a werewolf.   

One of the cool things about Wer is there is no physical transformation from a man into a wolf, and while that is usually the coolest part of most werewolf movies, if it is done poorly it can be one of the worst parts as well.  Talan already looks like someone who could be a wolf.  He is giant of a man, with huge hands, thick yellowed nails and a body full of hair.  His long hair on his head hangs in his face and he has a beard that covers most of his cheeks already.  His bones and body do contort and change as if there is some kind of transformation happening and he does sport fangs and superhuman strength, but he does not grow a snout, pointy ears or a ton of fur.

Some cool gore in the film, namely inspecting the remains of the first victims at the morgue, but sadly also some bad CGU blood when Talan goes on a rampage.  As supernatural as the movie is, they do try an ad a sense of realism which helps elevate this to one of the better werewolf movies out there.  Like Werewolves, hell just like good horror movies?  Check out Wer, it might just surprise you.

One last night to go.   We have made it this far.  Stick around to see what is the movie we watch on Halloween.