- Directed by David Hayter
- Written by David Hayter
- Stars Lucas Till, Stephen McHattie, John Pyper-Ferguson, Merritt Patterson, Jason Momoa
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH9XDDsfbW4
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was pretty good with a story that’s pretty predictable. It’s more heavy on action than horror, but there are loads of werewolves. The acting and effects are decent enough to get the job done. It’s not a great film, but we were entertained without any boredom.
Synopsis
We open on a teenager, Cayden, who had been getting the same nightmares, every night. He’s a football player, but he’s not very good at it. He leaps about twenty feet to attack another player and beat him senseless. He can’t explain it.
Later, he’s making out with his girlfriend in the car at night, under the full moon, and he has a headache. We see that he’s a werewolf. He wakes up in a puddle of blood at home and finds that his parents are both dead. The police come, but he runs away, hitching from town to town.
One night, at a truck stop, he watches the news, who call him the “Cannibal Killer.” He interrupts a prostitute getting beaten up and wolfs out to eat the attackers. He’s like the Hulk, only bloodier. He knows that suicide is his only option to stop the changes.
He runs into a guy at a bar, Wild Joe, who talks about being “afflicted.” Yeah, he’s a werewolf too, and Cayden has many questions. “You’re a predator, that’s what you are. Don’t fight it.” Cayden says that he was adopted, so his parents had no idea. The purebred werewolves are born this way, the ones who are bitten are just mutts. He doesn’t say much, but he points to “Lupine Ridge” on the map.
In Lupine Ridge, Cayden goes into the bar, and everyone there looks at him funny. Angel runs the bar, and her boyfriend Deke wants to start a fight with Cayden. Outside, he runs into John, who offers him work on his farm. Time passes, and Cayden is happy working there on the farm– except all the animals are afraid of him.
The big guy from town, Connor, comes to see Cayden, and he’s got funny eyes. John calls Cayden his nephew, but Connor doesn’t believe that.
The next morning, Cayden finds one of the sheep dead. John blames wolves from the hills. How much does John know about… Things? A guy named Carter says he’s Cayden’s second cousin, and warns him to get out of town before Connor finds out who Cayden really is. Later, Connor’s goons grab Carter in the woods; that goes badly for Connor, as the whole gang are wolves.
Angel takes Cayden to spy on Connor’s gang, who are eating what’s left of Carter. She takes him home to John, who knows everything. John tells Cayden about his mother. Cayden really is John’s nephew, and he’s from a very old, very pure bloodline. He explains purebreds and the mutts. Connor is actually Cayden’s real father, and he wants to have a son with Angel, who’s not at all into that.
Angel asks, “Is it a gift or is it a curse?” as they have a “bonding montage.” Then they have ultraviolent sex with claws and teeth. Afterward, they have to figure out how to get home with their clothes all torn up.
John and some of the town wolves know what’s up and talk about defending themselves. Tomorrow night is the full moon– and Halloween. They want to give the young people up to Connor; some of the town wolves haven’t changed in years, they’re all out of practice. Cayden says he’ll take care of it.
At the bad-wolves camp, they all know about Cayden now. Cayden walks right into the camp and confronts Connor about being his son.
The gang chases Cayden into the woods, but he’s tougher than all the mutts and kills them. Angel hears roaring from the hills and runs to help. Cayden jumps off a cliff to get away, but he survives.
Cayden wakes up and sees Wild Joe, who motivates him to survive. John tells him he has to change back to a wolf to heal properly, but Cayden doesn’t want to do it. Angel gets him to do it.
John and Cayden make explosives out of fertilizer, along with other booby-traps. Somehow, Connor’s guys kidnap John, Clara, and Angel. All the normal werewolves left town in fear, so no one’s gonna help them.
There’s a whole werewolf wedding thing between Connor and drugged-up Angel. Cayden makes a dramatic entrance. Angel wolfs out and frees the others. John chases after the pack, who are following Cayden through the woods. John sets off the booby traps and kills several of the gang members.
Soon, it’s just Cayden and Connor, one on one. Connor tells a story that shows that he might not be as bad as they all say. Suddenly, Wild Joe laughs and takes credit for everything. This was all Joe’s plan to get revenge on Connor for ripping out his eye. Oh, and he also killed Cayden’s parents and framed him for it. Joe kills Connor, but then John comes out with his gun, which promptly jams. Wild Joe runs, giving the whole “You’re too good a person to kill me in cold blood” speech. Thanks to Cayden, the buried trap Wild Joe is standing on explodes and little bits of him go every which way.
Later, Cayden and Angel wake up in bed together; it’s all gonna be fine now. John buried the bodies in the field. They get ready to leave town, so John gives him an old scroll with the names of all the werewolf family lines; he should look them up as he travels.
Commentary
It’s pretty straightforward. Cayden is the “chosen one” in a werewolf town. The werewolf makeup is actually pretty good here, and the fight scenes are fun. The transformation scenes are basic CGI, but they’re pretty decent too. The acting is fine for this kind of story; everyone is believable, but the roles are all pretty one-dimensional and cliched.
The werewolves here are actually very good, but the film is hurt by the extremely predictable story. It was entertaining, but it’s not gonna win any awards.