Review: WEREWOLVES WITHIN (2021)
Balancing multiple genres and tones within any work requires an incredible amount of precision. Leaning too far one way or the other, and the whole project is thrown off due to botched stakes, or poor characterization, or diminished investment and engagement. Some genres lend themselves to co-mingling more than others, mostly because the reactions of the audiences of each are so closely tied together.
Injecting melodrama into an action movie makes it seem even more epic and therefore that it’s not just the fate of the world that’s in the offing, but also the hero’s relationship with their daughter or whatever. A common response to startling moments in horror films is the quick shriek that devolves into laughter; the audience recognizes that the filmmaker’s pulled off essentially a prank while also laughing at themselves for getting so worked up over a cat or some other form of misdirection.
WEREWOLVES WITHIN combines many different genres and tones throughout its runtime, but constantly with different results. Sometimes they mesh perfectly, producing terrific chemistry and clever scenes with its outstanding ensemble cast and truly striking visuals. Other times it is a jarring mash-up that feels unsure of where to go. There is a bunch of good stuff in the film directed by Josh Ruben, but far too much of WEREWOLVES WITHIN feels like half-measures between the various genres that creates cinematic dissonance.
Ranger Finn (Sam Richardson) has arrived at his new post in Beaverfield. It’s a very small, rural community in snowy Vermont that is currently divided over allowing an oil pipeline to go through their quaint town. Finn is given a walking tour from hipstress mailperson Cecily (Milana Vayntrub), providing him with all of the true insight as they encounter the various colorful characters in the area. Soon the power is knocked out and the town is isolated from the rest of the world…a situation made much worse by the fact that there’s a killer in their midst. And that’s made even worser by the fact that it’s possibly a werewolf. Trying to navigate a sea of squabbling personalities, the township looks to survive the night and hopefully stop whatever is terrorizing Beaverfield.
Director Ruben has emerged as a talent to watch after his 2020 film SCARE ME received many accolades from critics and genre aficionados. That movie also involved switching between tones of comedy, horror, drama, and thriller while taking place in a mostly confined setting.
Many of those elements follow into WEREWOLVES WITHIN, adapted from the Ubisoft VR game of the same name by screenwriter Mishna Wolff. There’s the secluded town, cut off from the world, with a lot of the events transpiring in just a few locations. A contained cast of distinct personality types that are set to collide for comedic and foreboding purposes. And a sense of mystery about what is actually going on and who is truly in control of the situation. This isn’t to suggest that Ruben is a one-trick pony, simply that it’s interesting to see these common elements emerge—though they are opened up a bit more in WEREWOLVES WITHIN due to a larger cast, larger location, and introduction of more motivation beyond ego as in SCARE ME.
There is a lot to like in this movie. Most prominently is the cast which is made up of stellar performers who’ve mostly done character actor work and comedy thrust into essentially a parlor mystery with lycanthropy possibly being involved. The standout is Richardson, who is able to have a constrained kindness to him that spills over into meekness occasionally, but mostly reads as a sincere person that simply wants people to be happy. That awkward “beta male” attitude is a bit of a cliché in comedies, but Richardson blends it well with the demands of a protagonist trying to navigate a new place that may or may not be full of aggressive man-beasts.
Vayntrub works very well with Richardson and their chemistry carries many scenes, as her aloof weirdness doesn’t hide her interest in the slightly naive ranger and they both find themselves surrounded by a town full of screeching maniacs. As noted, this cast is stacked with great character actors and familiar faces that have turned in enduring performances in many other works. Michaela Watkins, Wayne Duvall, Cheyenne Jackson, Catherine Curtin, Michael Chernus, Harvey Guillén, and Glenn Fleshler make up the majority of the other players and each gets a moment to shine with a good joke or memorable reaction.
The problem enters when it’s clear that each of these characters is meant as a fairly broad stereotype. There’s some additional depth in the script and the actors bring a sense of humanity where they can, but nonetheless there’s the hillbilly trash, the overly woke gay couple, the MAGA contingent, a scheming industrialist, an awkward scientist, and so on. By itself, it’s completely fine if the folks are these broad types (though it invites a feeling that there’s some sort of subtext or messaging that falls flat); the problem is that the story and scenes don’t match their outsized personalities. With this mix of caricatures, there should be more subversion and weirdness in the comedy or at least an increased sense of energy when combined with the horror mystery angle. Instead there are some odd jokes bounced off a grieving widow that vaguely resemble dark comedy but just play like two different scenes spliced together. These trope figures mostly spout the sort of taglines and go-to catch phrases you’d expect “their types” to say, instead of taking it far beyond into a true comedic sense of lunacy.
The concern most would have with going too broad with the characters and comedy is that it could dilute the sense of mystery or danger. Which is where the balancing act comes in and why WEREWOLVES WITHIN falters too much. The idea of an isolated town that acts as a microcosm for America being stalked by a werewolf is absurd. But that’s okay! You can still get scary moments and memorable horror aspects into that absurdity.
HOT FUZZ and CLUB DREAD similarly dealt with cross-mingling genres while being populated by outsized characters and ridiculous plot points and managed to do it well by seeing where the multiple genres intersected. The over-the-top nature of a massive gunfight works with an over-the-top bit of bantering and physical comedy. The stereotypes being picked off in impractically convoluted ways of a slasher film is perfect for a broad comedy of clashing personalities whose paranoia and fear makes enhances and exaggerates their own lunacy and inherent humor. WEREWOLVES WITHIN is too unfocused to cultivate all of its elements congruously, with one scene having a couple of silly jokes, an actor trying to elicit pathos, and the mounting dread of the peril facing the group. With each cut and bits of dialogue, the scenes feel cobbled together as opposed to of one piece in one story in one world.
What makes this frustrating is that there are a lot of truly entertaining parts of Ruben’s film and viewers can see that with a bit more work WEREWOLVES WITHIN could have been exceptional. The cinematography by Matt Wise is great, evoking a moody atmosphere perfect for a wintry isolated spookshow which makes those bits of winning humor pop especially well. Production designer Bret August Tanzer and art director Matt Hyland do incredible work in their construction of Beaverfield with many small touches informing more about the town and characters than much of the dialogue. Anna Drubich’s score evokes terror but also introduces more playful tracks that help with the comedy as well as the drawing room mystery part of the script. And again, the cast is phenomenal though they feel far too restrained by a lack of a cohesive vision.
It’s odd that there are so many stumbling blocks to WEREWOLVES WITHIN’s success as there exist multiple templates of this exact plot in other mediums. Not only is this based off the Ubisoft video game, but that VR game is very close to the well-known Werewolf board game that’s been around for a long time. Furthermore, there is a very close similarity in plot and circumstance with 1974’s THE BEAST MUST DIE and the Tales From The Crypt comic book/TV show episode “Werewolf Concerto”. This isn’t to say that Wolff’s script is unoriginal, at all.
But that examples exists from which the filmmakers could work to see how to tweak the formula for better horror and comedy purposes. There is a lot to love about WEREWOLVES WITHIN, a genre blend about a shapeshifter in a town going through a lot of changes; it’s just a shame that so much of it is scattered beneath a film which is going through its own unfortunate identity crisis.