WEREWOLVES WITHIN (2021)

Studio:      IFC Films
Director:    Josh Ruben
Writer:      Mishna Wolff
Producer:  Jason Altman, Margaret Boykin, Andrew Lieberman, Natalie Metzger, Matt Miller, Benjamin Wiessner
Stars:     Sam Richardson, Milana Vayntrub, George Basil, Sarah Burns, Michael Chernus, Catherine Curtin, Wayne Duvall, Harvey Guillen, Rebecca Henderson, Cheyenne Jackson, Michaela Watkins, Glenn Fleshler

Review Score:

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Summary:

A forest ranger ends up in the center of a bizarre murder mystery while snowbound with the quirky residents of a small New England town.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

A werewolf attacks mailman Dave Sherman in the small New England town of Beaverfield. Dave’s wife Jeanine, who runs the Beaverfield Inn, assumes her husband ran off with another woman.

29.5 days later, Finn Wheeler arrives in town to take a post as Beaverfield’s new forest ranger. Finn learns the town is divided over a controversial pipeline project proposed by businessman Sam Parker of Midland Gas.

Finn meets Beaverfield’s new mail carrier Cecily Moore. Cecily introduces Finn to the town’s quirky residents including uncouth mechanic Gwen and her redneck boyfriend Marcus, Trish and Pete Anderton, and Devon Wolfson and his husband Joachim.

Acting on an animal trapping complaint from environmentalist Dr. Jane Ellis, Finn visits local hermit and huntsman Emerson Flint. Emerson forces Finn off his property at gunpoint.

Cecily takes Finn to a private bar where they begin forming a romantic bond. Cecily and Finn nearly kiss, but Finn interrupts the moment to take a phone call from his ex-girlfriend Charlotte, which upsets Cecily.

The werewolf kills Trish’s dog Cha-Chi, sparking suspicion of a dangerous animal on the loose. After Beaverfield loses all electrical power, Finn finds slash marks on sabotaged generators. Finn follows the destruction back to the inn where he discovers Dave Sherman’s dead body underneath the porch. Dr. Ellis theorizes that a wolf killed Dave.

Finn and Cecily start reconciling while walking to revisit Emerson Flint. Emerson refuses Finn’s request to be a good neighbor and hunt for whatever killed Dave. Finn and Cecily suspect Emerson could be the killer when they find Cha-Chi’s dog collar in Emerson’s cabin. After reporting back to the others, the townspeople also turn their suspicions toward Emerson. However, Dr. Ellis compares hairs found with Dave and Cha-Chi and concludes whatever killed them had human and canine DNA.

With a storm outside and a downed power pole blocking the main road, everyone bunkers down together in the inn. The werewolf attacks Pete during the night, but it gets away. Dr. Ellis barricades herself in her room after determining that the werewolf has to be someone in their group.

Sam and Dr. Ellis struggle behind closed doors. Gunshots are heard. Dr. Ellis dies. Sam claims Dr. Ellis killed herself because she was scared of the werewolf, although everyone remains suspicious of Sam since Dr. Ellis was leading the resistance against his pipeline.

Finn and Cecily find a map indicating Sam had been following previous reports of wolf attacks in other towns. Meanwhile, Trish murders Devon in the forest because he was one of the pipeline holdouts preventing her from being bought out.

Joachim joins Finn and Cecily at Trish’s house where they find Marcus affixing knives to his hand. Suspicious of the others, Marcus flees outside. Gwen accidentally runs over Marcus with her truck. Trish calls Gwen a homewrecker and suddenly shoots Gwen dead.

Finn, Cecily, and Joachim retreat back inside. Trish confronts the trio and confesses to killing Devon. Joachim slashes Trish with a fireplace poker. Trish falls dead into her furnace.

Finn, Cecily, and Joachim return outside, but end up in a standoff with Sam. Believing Cecily is the werewolf because she is the seventh child in her family, Joachim takes Cecily hostage at gunpoint. Sam fires an arrow into Joachim. Sam then captures Cecily and also accuses her of being the werewolf. Finn helps Cecily fight back against Sam. Before falling dead, Joachim shoots a gas tank that explodes and kills Sam.

Cecily brings Finn back to the bar. Finn finds newspaper clippings, stolen packages, and other clues confirming Cecily is secretly the killer werewolf. Finn confronts Cecily. Cecily admits she planted evidence and exploited the pipeline controversy to turn the town against each other as her cover.

Cecily transforms into a werewolf. Having had a change of heart about helping his neighbors, Emerson suddenly arrives and knocks Cecily to the ground with a shovel. Cecily recovers and attacks Emerson before battling Finn. Finn ultimately impales Cecily through her neck with a snowshoe.

Finn helps Emerson to his feet. With Finn and Emerson unaware, Cecily rises and prepares to attack both men. As Beaverfield’s only other survivor, Jeanine unexpectedly arrives and saves Finn and Emerson by firing a crossbow bolt into Cecily.

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Review:

“Everyone is a little questionable,” chirps mail carrier Cecily as she welcomes new forest ranger Finn to Beaverfield. She’s understating how much quirk comes with the kooks in this small town. Between abrasive mechanic Gwen and her redneck beau Marcus hurling insults as a form of foreplay, and Trish and Pete Anderton who definitely believe those QAnon theories about that D.C. pizzeria, there’s more than enough nuttiness to spread on ten PB&J sandwiches. Cecily hits it a little squarer on the head when Finn’s introductory tour concludes with, “Welcome to Beaverfield, it’s a freak show.”

Chilly New England weather covers Beaverfield in snow, but accusatory animosity runs hot among residents. A Big Oil billionaire’s pipeline project has everyone divided between those who can’t wait to cash out and those who are environmentally minded. Finn has barely been there an hour and he’s already pitted in the middle of back-and-forth bickering that causes him to question why he came to Beaverfield in the first place. Then his hands become fully overloaded when the town takes on another newcomer who poses a far bigger threat than a controversial gas line.

Cecily failed to mention one freak in particular because no one knows about it quite yet. Jeanine, who runs the local inn, thinks her missing husband Dave ran off with some floozy. Dave was actually mauled by what looks to be an elusive werewolf, and the creature’s slaughter spree seems to be just getting started. As if Beaverfield wasn’t weird enough, now they’ve got a murder mystery to deal with that might get them all killed.

Loosely based on the premise of an off-the-radar Ubisoft game that doesn’t involve Tom Clancy or a hooded assassin, “Werewolves Within” would pair well with “The Wolf of Snow Hollow” (review here) thanks to a similar setting, story, and tongue-in-cheek style. Its Goldilocks blend of low-cal porridge that’s not too wild or too mild serves easygoing snickers with a light line of lycanthropic cinnamon sprinkled on top. Although there is plenty of amusing charm to go around, be aware that the horror-humor seesaw has a bag of cement in its latter seat. If you’re looking for a major monster kicking up copious carnage, you’ll find “Werewolves Within” isn’t that kind of movie.

It is the kind of movie that makes the majority of its mood out of brisk banter. Dialogue comes out almost in singsong patterns where people speak in one pitch, then drop to a volume barely under their breath to deliver follow-up quips no one but the audience notices. Everyone emulates the rhythm of Hawkeye and Honeycutt as they regularly sling snark while observing oddness with only slightly alarmed expressions.

Characters can get cringe-worthy either through gags that fizzle fast or traits hitting heavily on tropes. Fortunately, sags in the movie’s sarcastic streaks get lifts from likable actors quite clearly having fun vamping it up without tipping over the top. For instance, a same-sex couple’s formulaic flamboyance seems built from ‘The Big Book of Gay Stereotypes.’ But the comic experience of Cheyenne Jackson and Harvey Guillen of “What We Do in the Shadows” brings buoyancy to roles written to be a touch too rote. Even when their alter egos leave laughter in the lurch, the great cast more than makes up for missing mirth.

Even though it hums with a constant buzz, “Werewolves Within’s” grounded approach to quietly witty comedy deliberately resists big breakouts of truly manic mayhem. Then when the whodunit angle opens all the way up to swallow the film’s focus, a number of redundant finger-pointing antics slow the speed with some sequences that aren’t as pepped-up as the rest of the pace.

Nevertheless, director Josh Ruben’s background with “Scare Me” makes him an ideal choice for bounding around a snowbound cabin more nimbly than one location should allow. Anna Drubich’s music is always mindful about accentuating little actions. There’s no shortage of whip pans and quick cuts providing visual punchlines too. That group effort on the post-production side of things stays steadily staged for snappiness even during a back nine that shrinks into a tightly contained chamber play.

Because of the way everything shakes out, “Werewolves Within” ends up under-populated with survivors whose relationships have the most emotional, or even comical, impact. Horror-humor hybrids are always “your mileage may vary” movies, but the bottom line here says that snags in plotting and pacing stop the ball from going over the wall. Regardless of where it lands in your own preference park though, “Werewolves Within” zeroes in on a tone that takes an entertaining jaunt around the bases, provided your meter stays set for peculiar goofs, not for powerhouse werewolf terror.

Review Score: 75

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