Search
Guilty Pleasures
8.9
Rate It
Book
Guilty Pleasures is a 1993 horror and mystery novel by Laurell K. Hamilton. It is the first book in...
Anita Blake Vampire Vampire Hunter Laurell K. Hamilton Laurell K Hamilton
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Werewolves Within (2021) in Movies
Dec 14, 2021
An incredible ensemble cast. (2 more)
Plot stays true to the classic 'whodunit' formula.
Milana Vayntrub.
Not enough horror. (2 more)
Not enough werewolves.
The burning desire for a hard R-rating.
A Sleepover with Guns
A horror comedy film based on the 2016 Red Storm Entertainment developed, Ubisoft published multiplayer VR video game of the same name, Werewolves Within keeps the same mystery/whodunit element of the game by introducing audiences to a small town under attack from a werewolf and leaving them to wonder which of the townsfolk could be the actual lycanthrope.
Directed by Josh Ruben and written by Mishna Wolff, Werewolves Within begins as Ranger Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) arrives in Beaverfield for his new post. Finn hits it off with the local mail carrier Cecily (Milana Vayntrub), but the rest of the town is unusually eccentric, to say the least.
There’s Trisha (Micahela Watkins) and Pete (Michael Chernus) Aderton, a couple who makes weird miniature dolls of everyone they meet and care a little too much for their dog. Devon (Cheyenne Jackson) and Joaquim (Harvey Guillén) are a homosexual couple living off the riches of a successful technological company. The town’s resident mechanic is Gwen (Sarah Burns), a crude woman whose husband Marcus (George Basil) is largely regarded as the town idiot.
Elsewhere in town, rounding out Beaverfield’s colorful cast of characters, is the clingy owner of the local lodge, Jeanine (Catherine Curtin), canine attack expert Dr. Ellis (Rebecca Henderson), oil magnate Sam (Wayne Duvall) who hopes to install a pipeline through the town at any cost, and Emerson, a ‘scary’ hunter who hates people and lives on the outskirts of town.
One night, when the power suddenly goes out and with the town’s back-up generators in a state of disrepair, everyone in town takes refuge in Jeanine’s lodge. However, after a corpse is discovered underneath the lodge’s porch and the townsfolk barricade themselves inside the building in an attempt to protect themselves from whatever may be lurking outside, the werewolf manages to attack from within.
In the aftermath of the attack, everyone begins to turn on each other, as the monster’s strike from inside the lodge provides them with a shocking revelation: Somebody in the lodge is the werewolf.
The cast works so well together. Richardson is does an excellent job of portraying Finn, a guy so nice and soft spoken that he feels like an African American Ned Flanders attempting to take charge as the authority figure.
Similarly, Vayntrub is so charming as Cecily that it makes you wonder why she hasn’t been in much else outside of AT&T commercials and the occasional voice role as Marvel’s Squirrel Girl, while Guillén is just as funny here as he is on What We Do in the Shadows, albeit in a slightly different way.
However, the most entertaining aspect of the film’s casting is the way everyone’s eccentric chemistry bounces off each other in a way that evokes this palpable sense of quirky absurdity that you can’t really find anywhere else.
The formula of Werewolves Within is a lot like Knives Out or Murder on the Orient Express, as it’s a mystery wrapped within the confines of a horror comedy, with the ensemble cast taking center stage as they dance around the comedy genre and a mild R-rating while the horror aspect is mostly reduced to sitting in the backseat and tapping you on the shoulder from time to time.
In fact, to that same mysterious end, the eponymous werewolf isn’t actually revealed until the last ten or so minutes of the film.
As someone who hasn’t played the original video game, the film adaptation of Werewolves Within was, overall, a little disappointing from a personal standpoint.
Yes, the film is more of a whodunit than a straight horror film, and thus it’s understandable why it did not lean completely into the more gory and terrifying potential of its premise. Yet, even with this fact in mind, the film still feels particularly lacking when it comes to its actual horror elements.
It’s also one of the softest R-rated films to come along in quite some time. While some aspects, such as Finn biting his tongue or saying “Heavens to Betsy” instead of dropping an F-bomb make sense, it remains frustrating nonetheless that Werewolves Within constantly feels as if it’s purposely holding itself back.
Which is a shame, because there’s more to a film like this than silly on-screen hijinks and running attempts by the audience to figure out who the killer is – after all, some of us will pay good money to see the monster you’ve advertised your entire film.
Recently, there seems to be a rising trend among modern werewolf movies to barely feature a film’s respective monster on screen. This year’s Bloodthirsty is a great example and, as much as I love the film, The Wolf of Snow Hollow did the horror/comedy concoction to a much more satisfying degree than Werewolves Within, and yet totally massacred the idea of an actual werewolf being the culprit.
At the end of the day, Werewolves Within is a film where a bunch of weirdos in some-little-nowhere-town are forcibly crammed into a lodge during a snowstorm and proceed to irritate one another to semi-humorous results as a werewolf hides among them. The film is essentially a wolf in a person’s clothing, as while Werewolves Within is fine for what it is and features some great performances here and a couple laugh-out-loud moments, its potential seems to be far greater than what we received.
Ultimately, Werewolves Within leaves horror fans starving and salivating for more.
Directed by Josh Ruben and written by Mishna Wolff, Werewolves Within begins as Ranger Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) arrives in Beaverfield for his new post. Finn hits it off with the local mail carrier Cecily (Milana Vayntrub), but the rest of the town is unusually eccentric, to say the least.
There’s Trisha (Micahela Watkins) and Pete (Michael Chernus) Aderton, a couple who makes weird miniature dolls of everyone they meet and care a little too much for their dog. Devon (Cheyenne Jackson) and Joaquim (Harvey Guillén) are a homosexual couple living off the riches of a successful technological company. The town’s resident mechanic is Gwen (Sarah Burns), a crude woman whose husband Marcus (George Basil) is largely regarded as the town idiot.
Elsewhere in town, rounding out Beaverfield’s colorful cast of characters, is the clingy owner of the local lodge, Jeanine (Catherine Curtin), canine attack expert Dr. Ellis (Rebecca Henderson), oil magnate Sam (Wayne Duvall) who hopes to install a pipeline through the town at any cost, and Emerson, a ‘scary’ hunter who hates people and lives on the outskirts of town.
One night, when the power suddenly goes out and with the town’s back-up generators in a state of disrepair, everyone in town takes refuge in Jeanine’s lodge. However, after a corpse is discovered underneath the lodge’s porch and the townsfolk barricade themselves inside the building in an attempt to protect themselves from whatever may be lurking outside, the werewolf manages to attack from within.
In the aftermath of the attack, everyone begins to turn on each other, as the monster’s strike from inside the lodge provides them with a shocking revelation: Somebody in the lodge is the werewolf.
The cast works so well together. Richardson is does an excellent job of portraying Finn, a guy so nice and soft spoken that he feels like an African American Ned Flanders attempting to take charge as the authority figure.
Similarly, Vayntrub is so charming as Cecily that it makes you wonder why she hasn’t been in much else outside of AT&T commercials and the occasional voice role as Marvel’s Squirrel Girl, while Guillén is just as funny here as he is on What We Do in the Shadows, albeit in a slightly different way.
However, the most entertaining aspect of the film’s casting is the way everyone’s eccentric chemistry bounces off each other in a way that evokes this palpable sense of quirky absurdity that you can’t really find anywhere else.
The formula of Werewolves Within is a lot like Knives Out or Murder on the Orient Express, as it’s a mystery wrapped within the confines of a horror comedy, with the ensemble cast taking center stage as they dance around the comedy genre and a mild R-rating while the horror aspect is mostly reduced to sitting in the backseat and tapping you on the shoulder from time to time.
In fact, to that same mysterious end, the eponymous werewolf isn’t actually revealed until the last ten or so minutes of the film.
As someone who hasn’t played the original video game, the film adaptation of Werewolves Within was, overall, a little disappointing from a personal standpoint.
Yes, the film is more of a whodunit than a straight horror film, and thus it’s understandable why it did not lean completely into the more gory and terrifying potential of its premise. Yet, even with this fact in mind, the film still feels particularly lacking when it comes to its actual horror elements.
It’s also one of the softest R-rated films to come along in quite some time. While some aspects, such as Finn biting his tongue or saying “Heavens to Betsy” instead of dropping an F-bomb make sense, it remains frustrating nonetheless that Werewolves Within constantly feels as if it’s purposely holding itself back.
Which is a shame, because there’s more to a film like this than silly on-screen hijinks and running attempts by the audience to figure out who the killer is – after all, some of us will pay good money to see the monster you’ve advertised your entire film.
Recently, there seems to be a rising trend among modern werewolf movies to barely feature a film’s respective monster on screen. This year’s Bloodthirsty is a great example and, as much as I love the film, The Wolf of Snow Hollow did the horror/comedy concoction to a much more satisfying degree than Werewolves Within, and yet totally massacred the idea of an actual werewolf being the culprit.
At the end of the day, Werewolves Within is a film where a bunch of weirdos in some-little-nowhere-town are forcibly crammed into a lodge during a snowstorm and proceed to irritate one another to semi-humorous results as a werewolf hides among them. The film is essentially a wolf in a person’s clothing, as while Werewolves Within is fine for what it is and features some great performances here and a couple laugh-out-loud moments, its potential seems to be far greater than what we received.
Ultimately, Werewolves Within leaves horror fans starving and salivating for more.
Broken Beasts (Xoe Meyers #3)
8.0
Rate It
Book
Xoe had hoped that after the events of the last few months, things would finally slow down. No such...
Merissa (12061 KP) rated The Mayfair Moon (The Darkwoods Trilogy #1) in Books
Mar 31, 2023 (Updated Apr 10, 2023)
About a week ago I was lamenting the fact that I am so behind on reading the books that I have downloaded onto my Kindle, and that I have so many now (over a thousand) that I can't remember what they are about. I have now come to realise that this is not always a bad thing. For hidden in the middle of August 2012, I have just read a book that is absolutely fantastic.
I will start by saying that it is the Paranormal genre, which as most of you know, is a favourite of mine. It has been compared to the Twilight Saga and admittedly, if you have read the books - not just seen the films - there are similarities and not just for the fact that there are werewolves. But there are also striking differences which make this book stand alone and not just in the shadow of Twilight.
This is a gritty, fast-paced book with well-rounded characters that you can get your teeth into (pardon the pun). There are twists and turns, revelations and mysteries, good guys who are not saccharine sweet and evil guys that you really do dislike. The relationships between the characters are believable and I know I had a best friend like Harry and still do.
There is violence and blood in this book but it does not take over the story and becomes unnecessary. This actually makes a nice change from the loveable, cuddly werewolves that you normally get who are so soft they can't fight out of a wet paper bag.
Recommended for anyone who was Team Jacob, who like Paranormal with a hint of romance and for all who like reading about werewolves.
* Verified Purchase ~ August 2012 *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
July 27, 2016
I will start by saying that it is the Paranormal genre, which as most of you know, is a favourite of mine. It has been compared to the Twilight Saga and admittedly, if you have read the books - not just seen the films - there are similarities and not just for the fact that there are werewolves. But there are also striking differences which make this book stand alone and not just in the shadow of Twilight.
This is a gritty, fast-paced book with well-rounded characters that you can get your teeth into (pardon the pun). There are twists and turns, revelations and mysteries, good guys who are not saccharine sweet and evil guys that you really do dislike. The relationships between the characters are believable and I know I had a best friend like Harry and still do.
There is violence and blood in this book but it does not take over the story and becomes unnecessary. This actually makes a nice change from the loveable, cuddly werewolves that you normally get who are so soft they can't fight out of a wet paper bag.
Recommended for anyone who was Team Jacob, who like Paranormal with a hint of romance and for all who like reading about werewolves.
* Verified Purchase ~ August 2012 *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
July 27, 2016
Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated 100% Wolf (2020) in Movies
Aug 21, 2020
Contains spoilers, click to show
100% Wolf is a children's animated movie about werewolves, in particular, Freddy Lupin the soon to be leader of his pack.
The pack spend their full moon's rescuing people from fires and other disasters but still hiding from the public at large and especially from the local ice cream sales man who is convinced he has proof that the werewolves exist. By day the pack is trying to rid the city of dogs, who they see as inferior
on the night he is meant to take his roll as pack leader, Freddy steps into the moon light expecting to be transformed into a large, savage wolf but, instead emerges as a small poodle.
100% Wolf is about acceptance, Freddy has to accept that he is different, both from what he expected and from what his pack wants. He also needs to accept help from the local dog's who he has been taught to hate.
100% Wolf is a surprisingly good film, funny, with just the right amount of action and a good sound track. It's a bit predictable but only because it's a children's film.
The pack spend their full moon's rescuing people from fires and other disasters but still hiding from the public at large and especially from the local ice cream sales man who is convinced he has proof that the werewolves exist. By day the pack is trying to rid the city of dogs, who they see as inferior
on the night he is meant to take his roll as pack leader, Freddy steps into the moon light expecting to be transformed into a large, savage wolf but, instead emerges as a small poodle.
100% Wolf is about acceptance, Freddy has to accept that he is different, both from what he expected and from what his pack wants. He also needs to accept help from the local dog's who he has been taught to hate.
100% Wolf is a surprisingly good film, funny, with just the right amount of action and a good sound track. It's a bit predictable but only because it's a children's film.
Bound (Blood Moon, Texas Shifters #3)
10.0
Rate It
Book
Teacher by day, fantasy writer by night, West Caldwell was forced to live in secret long before...
MM Paranormal Romance Urban Fantasy Vampires Shifters
ClareR (5726 KP) rated Twisted Roots (After the Storm#2) (The Eye of the Storm) in Books
Jul 30, 2023
I was very excited to dive back into Dianna Hardy’s world of werewolves from The Eye of the Storm series. This novelette “Twisted Roots” gives one of the three main male characters, Taylor, a chance to reconcile what happened to him on the night that his world changed forever. He feels that he’s missing something from that night - something he can’t quite put his finger on.
These novelettes (this is the second, and there’s more to come) are for those who have already read The Eye of the Storm series, and they add just an extra special something to the story. If you like werewolves, I’d highly recommend the series. I loved them - pure escapism. And we all need a bit of that sometimes! I’m just glad that Dianna Hardy is writing again, and excited for the two worlds of The Eye of the Storm and The Witching Pen to combine in a novel planned for the future - I'm just going to have to wait!
My opinions are my own (as anyone who knows me will fully agree with!) and many thanks to Dianna Hardy for sending me an ARC to read and honestly review.
These novelettes (this is the second, and there’s more to come) are for those who have already read The Eye of the Storm series, and they add just an extra special something to the story. If you like werewolves, I’d highly recommend the series. I loved them - pure escapism. And we all need a bit of that sometimes! I’m just glad that Dianna Hardy is writing again, and excited for the two worlds of The Eye of the Storm and The Witching Pen to combine in a novel planned for the future - I'm just going to have to wait!
My opinions are my own (as anyone who knows me will fully agree with!) and many thanks to Dianna Hardy for sending me an ARC to read and honestly review.
Frecklesxoxo (6 KP) rated Red-Headed Stepchild (Sabina Kane, #1) in Books
Feb 27, 2019
Well, this book has everything I like, vampires, mages, werewolves, Demons and much much more, I absolutly love Sabina Kane, she has attidude and underneath that really tough exterior she has a really soft heart that I thoroughly enjoyed finding out through the 3 books (Mage in Black, Green-eyed Demon) and I cannot wait for the fourth book as i'm sure it will be even better the the first 3 as with each book we see more of who Sabina Kane really is and she gets even more interesting :)
What We Do In The Shadows (2014)
8.3
Rate It
Movie Watch
A mockumentary about a group of vampires who share a flat in Wellington, New Zealand, as they face...
mockumentary
Briannabrown1019 (799 KP) rated City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1) in Books
Dec 3, 2020
I'm suuuuuuuuper late to the cassandra clare party, but better late than never right? Until this week if you'd mentioned shadowhunters to me I'd have looked at you like you were crazy. Now I think ill just go ahead and read them all 🤣 this book was great mainly for the fact that it has a little bit of everything, not just the shadowhunters. Vampires? Yep. Werewolves? Yep. Warlocks, fae, demons? All yep. Then sprinkle in some witty banter, a couple fight scenes, and an interesting, though slightly predictable, plot? Works for me.