By Nia Edwards-Behi
I was offered Wolves for review because somehow my esteemed editor knew that a film aimed at teens about werewolves and starring Jason Momoa would be appealing to me. He was certainly correct, and so cheerily I took on the task, expecting a slightly blood-and-sexed-up version of Twilight: New Moon, only without the vampires. Oh, I was ever so mistaken. On the one hand, Wolves demonstrates glimmers of a much more interesting film, in scenes that tease like a stupid person using a big word, only to follow it up with a string of malapropisms. On the other hand, Wolves features dialogue, acting and check-box predictability that at times manages to surpass even some of the worst moments in Twilight.
Cayden (Lucas Till), star high school jock, discovers he’s a werewolf. After a series of tragic events, he runs away to try and find his roots. He finds both family and trouble, and the dangers of what being a werewolf really entails. Working on John’s (Stephen McHattie) farm, he gets to know the locals, including Angelina (Merritt Patterson), learns the truth about himself and locks horns with local tyrant Connor (Jason Momoa), a bad wolf if ever there was one. When Cayden discovers Connor’s sickening plans for Angelina, all in the name of keeping the peace between packs, Cayden decides to intervene.
This film is definitely a squandered opportunity to use the werewolf to explore very topical issues. If I was being generous, I’d say the film demonstrates an awareness of recent events in American high schools regarding unbridled machismo, corruption in the culture of high school sports and the pressure put on boys to behave a certain way; however, this film does not deserve my generosity. Cayden seriously injures another boy on the football pitch, unaware of his own strength as a wolf. He sweetly asks his girlfriend if she’s sure when things get hot and heavy in his car, but when his excitement quite literally unleashes the beast and she tells him to back off, he suddenly can’t take no for an answer and she has to smack him square between the eyes to get away. For me, the scene perfectly demonstrates the frankly offensive argument that gosh, when you start a boy off, you know, you can’t just ask him to stop so there’s no point calling that ‘rape’ now, is there.
I think the film could have really taken this idea and run with it. It could have done something so interesting – as Cayden discovers a new way of life, the painful truths about his family and his real father, and faces the quandary of whether or not being a wolf necessitates doing bad things. The werewolf is the perfect, even obvious, metaphor to explore some of the issues that are tied up in these sorts of current, sad events. Instead, Cayden has a redemptive scene in which he beats up a bunch of thugs who are harassing a woman who had earlier propositioned him, and is later is able to let the wolf free without consequences when he has sex with a lady-werewolf. Near the film’s end, Cayden says to his father, “You did this to me. You made me the monster I am,” and I was reminded of just how interesting the film could have been.
I’m not sure that missing out on some topical social commentary is the film’s biggest crime, though, when it’s frankly just so incompetent. Yes, there is some excellent wolf make-up on show here – if you like your wolfmen more man than wolf, at any rate – but there’s also an abundance of truly awful CGI effects. The dialogue is, at times, painful. Given that the script is by David ‘X2’ Hayter this is particularly disappointing, and the thought of him writing and directing the Black Widow film fills me with dread. My favourite exchange in Wolves unfolds thus, between a group of werewolves: “When is the full moon?” / “Tomorrow night.” / “Halloween.” / “Jesus!” Now. Nothing else is made of the fact that it’s Halloween. That’s the only, pointless, stupid reference to it. More inherently stupid, though, is the fact that any werewolf has to ask when then full moon is taking place. These are indeed wolves who can change shape at will, but lunar forces still have an influence on them. I’ll forgive Hayter the one line that did make me chuckle, however, as John’s fully human wife explains that she’s not part of the pack, she “just likes men with chest hair.”
The performances aren’t up to scratch either, though when the script is as awful this, that’s hardly surprising. The romance between Cayden and Angelina is painful, from the over-blown ‘eyes meet across the room’ moment to the embarrassing sex scene. The character of Angelina is particularly frustrating, as she simply functions as the tired old damsel in distress, there as a plot device to get our hero to act. There’s an obligatory ‘I’m going with you!’/‘No, you’re not,’ scene and when we finally do get to see Angelina-wolf, she kills a man and rescues John, only to send him to go after Cayden and ‘save him’. Do it your damn self, capable lady-wolf! (Amusingly, Angelina-wolf looks like a cross between the Bride of Frankenstein and a badger.) Needless to say, Jason Momoa is completely wasted in this film, although he seems to be enjoying himself in the role at times.
It’s not just the script that’s terrible. The film starts with a voice-over that disappears completely part way through the film. There’s strange stylistic use of really obvious green screen. The soundtrack is distractingly bad. At the start of this film I mentioned Twilight. I enjoy the Twilight franchise, while acknowledging that a lot of it is terrible. Sadly, the terribleness of Wolves does not remotely save it, and instead it only serves to highlight what a wasted opportunity it is.
The film’s climax reveals a bit of a twist in various characters’ motivations and histories. Instead of everything suddenly making sense and the film finally coming together, I was left wondering why a particular character didn’t just mention this earlier and save everyone the trouble. I’m genuinely not sure who might enjoy this film – the blood‘n’boobs aren’t quite enough to satisfy a ‘proper’ horror crowd, and the romance angle is too anaemic for even the wariest teenage girl. This is just a simpering mess of a film that could have been so much more.
Wolves is released to Region 2 DVD on 2nd march 2015, from Altitude Film Distribution.