WEREWOLVES WITHIN (REVIEW)

Dir. Josh Ruben

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

THE THING meets TUCKER AND DALE with werewolves and under brilliant direction from Josh Ruben manages to perfectly balance humour and suspense to make neither too dominant.

When new sheriff, Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) arrives at Beaverfield, he discoveres the town is ripped apart by the idea of a proposed gas pipeline creating divisions amongst the townsfolk. When a snowstorm hits, Finn and postal worker Cecily (Milana Vayntrub) must try to keep tension from boiling over. Add into the mix a threat of a werewolf attack and the night just became a lot messier.

Based on a videogame of the same name, having not played it, can't give any comparison however the film is very much a whodunnit with a band of misfits fighting to save the night and uncover the truth.

Without going into spoiler territory, WEREWOLVES WITHIN is so much more than a run-of-the-mill creature feature and plays into the unsuspecting, to say anything more would be spoiling the enjoyment. In true horror-comedy fashion, the tone is set but while the frenzied characters are busy infighting, the unpredictability of their nature creates some hilarious but no less gory results.

As the body count starts rising, so too do the suspects as it appears the werewolf is within the cabin and as such suspicion rises to a tense but satisfying resolve. Richardson's "nice" persona carries the film as everyone around him becomes more and more fuelled by the demons they have kept bottled up but this is film that really is an overall enjoyable watch.