News

In Steven C Miller’s intermittently effective film a supermoon turns those exposed to its light into werewolves – or rather people wearing hairy Halloween masks

Intermittently effective but grindingly repetitive, this lupine-themed horror posits a world where nearly a billion people have died after a supermoon turned anyone exposed to its light into a werewolf. A full year has passed, and in an unnamed city folks are preparing for yet another supermoon-werewolf apocalypse by securing their homes with booby traps and arming themselves to the teeth.

Sensitive yet studly former soldier turned scientist Wesley (Frank Grillo) takes leave of his widowed sister-in-law Lucy (Ilfenesh Hadera) and her daughter Emma as he heads off to help out in a special experiment. At a facility nearby, a team of boffins have developed a kind of “moonblock” that is designed to stop the reflected rays from Earth’s largest satellite from turning people into snarling,...

Stars: Frank Grillo, Ilfenesh Hadera, Kamdynn Gary, Lou Diamond Phillips, Katrina Law, James Michael Cummings | Written by Matthew Kennedy | Directed by Steven C. Miller

Werewolves, originally titled Year 2, begins a year after a supermoon turned everyone who was exposed to it into a werewolf. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, a supermoon is a full moon that occurs when the moon is at the closest point to Earth, they have a dramatic effect on things like tides, but this one goes further than that. It unlocks mankind’s latent werewolf gene, causing unimaginable chaos and death. And now it’s about to happen again.

When we first meet Wesley Marshal he’s busy setting up defences at the home of his sister-in-law Lucy and her young daughter, Emma. They need the help because Wesley’s brother was a firefighter, killed in the line of duty during the first transformation.

“Werewolves” is your basic, everyday lean-and-mean dystopian werewolf-as-zombie action thriller, with elements lifted from the pandemic and the “Purge” films. It’s not a good movie, but it’s a tight little time passer. Frank Grillo, who’s at the center of it (playing a ripped bruiser who is also…a molecular biologist!), has a way of making any pulp movie better. He’s like a brainy Charles Bronson. And the plot is simplicity itself, and efficiency too: On the night of a supermoon (that’s when the full moon comes closest to Earth), people all over the globe are transformed into towering werewolves if they look at the moon for so much as one second. Talk about a good reason to stay home and stream something.

How are the werewolves? Cheesy in a fun way. As in self-consciously old-fashioned, or maybe just lavishly threadbare. A lot of people now...

Steven C. Miller’s lycan action-thriller Werewolves is a little bit Dog Soldiers, a dash of The Purge, and a decent amount of howl-and-gun excitement. It’s high on indie spirits but not clear of shortcomings. Miller’s further return to the horror genre after 2022’s smarthouse slasher Margaux feels tethered to his prior run of shoot-em-up Bruce Willis collaborations and too serious for its good. Legendary SFX artist Alec Gillis designs all the film’s snarling monsters, a highlight of Werewolves, but something else is missing from the experience that prevents this scrappy creature feature from breaking into the furry subgenre’s upper echelon.

Frank Grillo stars as Wesley Marshall, the hunky molecular biologist for a rapid response team trying to cure the world of a global werewolf event. Once a year, a supermoon alters human DNA and turns anyone into a mythical wolf-person. Under program honcho Dr. Aranda...

Blending the lycanthropic horrors of The Howling with the chaotic carnage of The Purge: Anarchy, Steven C. Miller's new movie Werewolves is now sinking its teeth into cinemas, introducing viewers to a haunting world where being exposed to the light of a supermoon turns people into ravenous werewolves for one night.

Daily Dead recently had the pleasure of talking with star Frank Grillo about working on the atmospheric action horror film, including how the script reminded him of The Purge: Anarchy, the authenticity of working with practical effects, and the fun of starring alongside Katrina Law.

You can watch our full interview with Frank Grillo below, and in case you missed it, check out our previous interview with director Steven C. Miller. For a full list of theatrical screenings of Werewolves, visit:

https://www.werewolvesmovie.com/

Synopsis: In Werewolves, a supermoon event has triggered a latent gene in every human on the planet,...

Director Steven C. Miller‘s latest, the action-horror creature feature Werewolves, drew early comparisons to The Purge based on its premise and its star, Frank Grillo. From its opening sequence that sees Lou Diamond Phillip‘s Dr. Aranda deliver the proper setup and worldbuilding for the madness ahead, however, it’s clear that Werewolves has more in common with the “anything goes” spirit of ’90s action horror films like Full Eclipse, Project Metal Beast, and even Blade. While Miller takes the action and werewolf effects with utmost seriousness, Werewolves just wants you to have fun. More importantly, it’s the type of movie that delivers exactly what’s promised: a whole lot of snarling, drooling werewolves.

Written by Matthew Kennedy, Werewolves introduces a world where a supermoon triggered a gene mutation that transforms people into werewolves if they step out into the moonlight. One year later, with another supermoon looming,...

The tagline for Werewolves didn’t need to be anything more “Frank Grillo Werewolf Movie” because as fans of Action’s B-Movie Megastar, that’s all we needed to know. You like Frank Grillo? You like Werewolves? Well good news, fellow Venn Diagram movie fan, we’re getting it all in Steven C. Miller’s Werewolves!

Now I know we’re all worried about Climate Change, but have any of us taking a second to consider that while the Earth has us looking to the right, the Moon is coming in for the kill to the left?! That’s essentially the premise of Werewolves. In the near future, a cataclysmic event is brewing that threatens life as we know it. Thanks to a Supernatural Super Blood Moon, anyone caught under the silver glow of that big rock in the sky is suddenly transformed into a snarling beast. And in an...

Blending the lycanthropic horrors of The Howling with the chaotic carnage of The Purge, the new movie Werewolves sinks its teeth into cinemas beginning tonight, introducing viewers to a haunting world where being exposed to the light of a supermoon turns people into ravenous werewolves for one night.

Daily Dead recently had the pleasure of talking with director Steven C. Miller about making the kinetic action horror movie, including working with Frank Grillo, collaborating with practical effects legends Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr., and his desire to continue expanding the universe of Werewolves in future films!

Synopsis: In Werewolves, a supermoon event has triggered a latent gene in every human on the planet, turning anyone who entered the moonlight into a werewolf for that one night. Chaos ensued and close to a billion people died. Now, a year later, the Supermoon is back....

Release Date: December 6, 2024 (Theatrical)

Distributor: Briarcliff Entertainment

Directed by: Steven C.

Frank Grillo hypes up the violence in his new horror movie Werewolves. Werewolves is a creature-based horror film about a duo of scientists who are working to stop a mutation that transforms people into werewolves a full year after they encounter a super-moon. The film is directed by Steven C. Miller and written by Matthew Kennedy. It features a leading cast including Grillo, Katrina Law, Ilfenesh Hadera, James Michael Cummings, Lou Diamond Phillips, Kamdynn Gary, Lydia Styslinger, and James Kyson. Werewolves is set for release this Friday, December 6.

In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Grillo reveals why Werewolves had to be dialed back from its original version. Upon reading the script, Grillo reports calling the director and saying that the film was like "The Purge meets werewolves." Because of the level of violence in the movie, the Werewolves team had to "kind of tone it down." They also had...