Werewolf Castle

Just finished watching the movie and despite its clear lack of budget I couldn't help but be completely engrossed in the movie. I feel that if they were to remake it with a higher budget it could be massive.

Sure, I can't claim that I was harboring much of any high hopes or expectations to this 2021 fantasy horror movie from writer and director Charlie Steeds titled "Werewolf Castle".

Why? Well, first of all I hadn't even heard about the movie prior to sitting down in 2022 to watch it. Secondly then the majority of werewolf-based movies out there tend to be dubious movies. And also the fact that it was all unfamiliar names on the cast list wasn't really all that enticing either.

But still, I opted to watch "Werewolf Castle" on the notion of it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, and also on the off chance that the movie might actually be one of those rare instances where it is actually a great werewolf movie.

Yeah, I hate to say it but "Werewolf Castle" wasn't exactly a particularly thrilling or great movie. Sure, it was watchable for what it was - with that being a rather generic and mediocre werewolf movie. "Werewolf Castle" is the type of movie you watch once, then put it into the pile of shame and never return to it ever again.

Visually then "Werewolf Castle" was a mixed bag of nuts. The idea of the werewolves were good, but it was just so obviously people wearing furred suits and masks. Especially the masks were bad. Well, they looked good actually, but bad in the sense that there was zero articulation on them, so the werewolves wore the same open maw expression all the time.

The acting performances in the movie were so-so. I mean, the actors put on adequate enough performances, but you shouldn't go expecting a grand thespian experience here, if so you will be sorely disappointed.

"Werewolf Castle" lands a very mediocre five out of ten stars from me.

Werewolf Castle (2021) is a United Kingdom 🇬🇧 picture that I watched on Amazon Prime last month. The storyline follows a young man whose entire village is killed by werewolves. He joins a group of mercenaries out to kill the menace plaguing the countryside.

This movie is written and directed by Charlie Steeds (A Werewolf in England) and stars Peter Lofsgard (Vampire Virus), Tim Cartwright (A Werewolf in England), Jake Watkins (Freeze), Derek Nelson (Midnight Peepshow) and Megan Tremethick (Dragon Knight).

If they did a better job with the werewolf costumes and depiction this would be an underrated gem. The settings, attire, circumstances and cinematography are excellent. It reminded me of 13th Warrior in some ways. The kill scenes are very good and contain solid gore. Some sequences are shot a bit too dark, but the overall premise and execution is very good and any flesh consumption scenes are entertaining. The entire cabin scene that sets up the ending was entertaining and a lot of fun. There's a final fight that could have been better but what happens to the main character at the end made me smile.

Overall, this ends up being a very average movie because of the werewolf special effects but there are elements worth your time. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

My main criticism of this film is that almost everything about it is trying its best to stop you suspending your disbelief and enjoy the ride.

The werewolves are the central threat, but their costumes and masks are laughably poor and not at all scary if you're over five years old. The werewolf leader in human form has a ridiculous lisp due to his oversize plastic chompers, and his cheesy villainous monologues are the opposite of terrifying. And there are no actual wolves (or any other animals) in the film.

The supposedly medieval village buildings are obviously modern constructions made of machined wood with perfectly straight lines and right angles everywhere, especially the interiors. The knights wear their perfectly shiny plate armour 24 hours a day. The props, weapons etc. Are all pristine and obviously made with power tools. Whitened teeth, perfect close shaves, clippered haircuts, modern colours in the peasants' clothing, a map apparently made with a computer and a laser printer... the list goes on. The only effort to inject some grime is a bit of burnt cork rubbed on the actors' faces and liberal amounts of red corn syrup daubed and splashed about to represent blood.

If you can forgive and forget the almost constant visual sabotage, then the actual storyline, dialogue and performances are passable, but not great. The actors playing the knights make a decent effort with their dialogue to deliver interesting and distinct characters with fun interpersonal conflicts - these are guys you can root for and I enjoyed their scenes. The young protagonist however is not particularly likeable. For most of the film he is cowardly and ineffectual with no balancing charm or other redeeming features. His main skills seem to be begging for help, sobbing, dropping things and falling over. As for the ending, well it's really not the high point the writer(s) hoped it would be... I'd say cutting the last 15 minutes and leaving us to extrapolate would probably have made the film better, or perhaps just skipping the action scene at the castle and cutting to the final resolution scene would have worked.

On the plus side the sound production is good. The dialogue is always clear, which is an accomplishment with most of the scenes being filmed outdoors. Ambient sounds are used well, as is the almost continuous background music and dynamic musical score which is well synchronised with the action and dramatic dialogue. The photography and editing are pretty good and support the storytelling. The liberal use of daytime outdoor shots and natural daylight is to be commended; too many films of this genre over-rely on gloomy lighting to cover a multitude of sins and the audience experience is worse for it.

Overall, some enjoyable aspects, but I think the main letdowns are the frankly terrible villain(s), the discount werewolf costumes, the multitude of visual anachronisms, the writing of a rather lacklustre protagonist, and the final action scene.

This has one of the worst werewolf movies ever. It's just people dressed up in a cheap Halloween costume with no special effects whatsoever and when they attack each other then not even touching each other. It's a bit like watching a 7-year-old school play. How can anyone actually produce this movie without laughing. This is 2023 if I only spent a few thousand dollars on some animation it would have gone a long way. The only thing that was good was the sex scene at the start. It went completely downhill after that. I'm not sure why Amazon would even put this on their movie list as it seems a very d-rated movie with a very small budget.