Television WEREWOLF BY NIGHT (Dragonlord's Review, post #62)

[Dr Curtis Love]

It has 58% on Rotten Tomatoes.

No one should ever use Rotten Tomatoes as a gauge for anything.

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

Update: October 7, 2022

Dragonlord’s Review of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT (No Spoilers)

Bottom Line: A nice throwback to the classic horror films of the black and white era, Werewolf by Night is a pleasant, spooky horror and a potential introduction to the Marvel Studios monster universe.

Marvel Studios’ Werewolf by Night is a Halloween television special that’s shown primarily in black and white. The story takes place in one night where a select group of monster hunters are invited to take part in a deadly competition with the winner being bestowed the powerful relic, the Bloodstone.

There are two central characters in here – Jack Russell (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly). Jack is an affable monster slayer who has an agenda on why he’s participating in the contest while hiding an even darker secret within him. Elsa, the estranged daughter of the late Ulysses Bloodstone, dislikes her family’s monster hunting tradition and is just there to claim her birthright, the Bloodstone.

The Halloween special has a run time of 53 minutes only. It’s a pretty lean, straightforward tale that features an adequate amount of spooky atmosphere, gripping storytelling, horror action commendable use of practical effects. Pleasantly surprised by some of the brutal kills/deaths towards the end. Though not a big fan but it’s appropriate in here, the werewolf design is similar to the Lon Chaney Jr. wolfman look.

Arguably stealing the show, Man-Thing makes his MCU debut and he looks absolutely fantastic. “Whoever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing’s touch” is the creature’s catchphrase and is faithfully executed in here.

Laura Donnelly, who was outstanding in the short-lived Victorian action series The Nevers, is terrific as Elsa Bloodstone. The actress has an impressive aura about her that gives her this innate confidence and intensity about her which makes here a superb leading heroine. She was equally good when she had to show fear when she was put in a very perilous situation.

Doing a solid job with his sophomore outing, the special is directed by brilliant composer Michael Giacchino of Lost, The Incredibles, The Batman fame). Werewolf by Night is fun entertainment and a love letter to the Universal Classic Monsters. Props to Marvel Studios for developing something so unconventional, this feels like the first step in a Marvel monster universe with more crossovers with characters like Blade, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider and the Midnight Sons/Suns.

RATING: 7.5 OUT OF 10 STARS

 

[Dragonlordxxxxx]

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/werewolf_by_night

As of now, 100%

He was talking about Wonder Woman 1984 having 58% score on RT, not Werewolf by Night.

 

[huskylord]

Awesome, looking forward to watching this with my son later this weekend.

 

[Fedorgasm]

Train by day, werewolf by night?

 

[Fluffernutter]

He was talking about Wonder Woman 1984 having 58% score on RT, not Werewolf by Night.

I stand corrected

 

[ShadBo]

Man, I am not a fan of the Lon Chaney werewolf style.

Van Helsing still #1 werewolf design.

Appreciate the review @Dragonlordxxxxx

 

[ShadBo]

Can't add this image to my post above.

The Van Helsing werewolf looks much more like an anthropomorphic wolf rather than a hairy ape-man with bad teeth.

 

[LilMountain]

7, thought it was decent, but didn't care for the B&W choice for most of it, I wonder if that was partly a CGI budgetary thing as I found it particularly hard to see much during the finale fight

 

[Bob Gray]

Late Phases, a somewhat recent one that is excellent.

I really liked that idea, the characters, the script. Had a great twist, etc.

But Jesus, the werewolf looked SO bad. And then the director didn't even try to account for that. He just showed all the terrible effects in the brightest light that he could for long periods of time. I was mystified. No use of shadows or darkness. No angles or shots to make up for it. Just straight on close ups of the most terrible looking suit in Bright light. I couldn't understand it. Brought the whole movie down.

 

[Busgosu]

Holy shit, some people do really like to complain about everything nowadays. The werewolf design is almost picture perfect like the one in the comics.

I've just finished watching it. It was really good and quite bloody for a Marvel show (maybe that's one of the reasons they went b/w)

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

Wow… this REALLY GOOD!!! Wasn’t expecting much but I had a lot of fun.

Modern horror is usually trash. I’m glad they went the classic route. IMO this delivered by stylish and original

 

[Busgosu]

Can't add this image to my post above.

The Van Helsing werewolf looks much more like an anthropomorphic wolf rather than a hairy ape-man with bad teeth.

View attachment 947090

Nah, The Howling still has the best werewolf design of all time. Also practical effects, which in my book always comes on top of cgi. And It was made in 1981!!

 

[biscuitsbrah]

Sweet, I have no idea what werewolf or any of it’s supporting characters are but I’m a sucker for marvel studios. Can’t wait to watch

 

[shunyata]

Nah, The Howling still has the best werewolf design of all time. Also practical effects, which in my book always comes on top of cgi. And It was made in 1981!!

I'd pay good money to watch the team that did Prey do a The Howling reboot or prequel.

Ravenous meets Prey but with a whole tribe of Howling style wendigo.

 

[Protectandserve]

Nah, The Howling still has the best werewolf design of all time. Also practical effects, which in my book always comes on top of cgi. And It was made in 1981!!

I would add the werewolves from Dog Soldiers to the mix as well for solid effect’s

 

[I Am Legion]

Looks okay, Reminds me of that one episode of xfiles that used the same type of B&W camera work.


BTW have the usual fragile suspects come in to complain that because a Latino actor is the main character it means this is going to be a "woke" show?

Loved that X-Files and Supernatural has done it as well....

 

[Sano]

Kinda crazy that no one has managed to make a great werewolf movie, hardly ever. They tried with the Wolfman, but despite an amazing cast (I mean Benicio as a werewolf, come on) it was quite bad. Is there no market for it or is it simply to difficult to adapt monster movies without it being kitsch?

 

[Busgosu]

Kinda crazy that no one has managed to make a great werewolf movie, hardly ever. They tried with the Wolfman, but despite an amazing cast (I mean Benicio as a werewolf, come on) it was quite bad. Is there no market for it or is it simply to difficult to adapt monster movies without it being kitsch?

Just to name the best: An American werewolf in London is an EXCELLENT werewolf movie. It's arguably one of the best horror films of the 80s.

 

[Busgosu]

btw, earlier this year I also watched this other werewolf film and it was quite decent too: