Werewolf Cabal

It's refreshing to see an indie flick where it's obvious that they're trying hard to make it all work on a shoestring budget.

It's also quite a pallette clenser to see a movie with no CGI or green screen.

Some comedy, some horror and a generally a bit of everything.

It has an element of nostalgia to old Hammer Horror movies with a pinch of dark humour thrown in for good measure.

With a bigger budget I can see future movies increasing in visual quality and allowing the director move of a chance to really do what they want.

Not everything works in this movie but it rarely ever does. Good effort though.

Good stuff.

On the trail of a serial killer, a pair of cops reach out to an informant for information on the case which lets them in on a tale he knows about a writer returning to his hometown to claim his mother's inheritance and coming across a monstrous curse haunting the village which puts them in grave danger.

Overall, this was a pretty solid and enjoyable if slightly flawed effort. One of the better features here is the setup about the writer returning here and getting in touch with the locals in the community. From the quirky real estate agent that sets him on his way to the relationship featured here between him and the former maid who lives at the house, this comes together to set in motion the features of the main crop of villagers. That this also leads to the discovery of what's going on as the events begin to unfold and their occult practices come to the forefront serves this even better allowing for a great main storyline. That gives the film a highly enjoyable setup to provide a base for some genuinely fun cheesy creature action. The beast itself doesn't get any screentime until an hour in but it comes in grand style with a fun throwback transformation sequence featuring the kind of cheesy practical effects that are required here offering a fantastic sequence. The resulting rampage and action of it running loose in the countryside area provides some fun times while featuring some fine gore as well which makes this frenetic and rather exciting section have some life as it also ties the black magic rites being brought into play as the motivation and backstory for the creature. All told, these factors provide a lot to like here. This one does have some minor issues with it. The main problem here is that the tempo of the film is quite flat and underwhelming which plods along at a disheartening rhythm. The stoic mannerisms and exceptionally talkative setup make this come across as immensely lethargic and plodding rather than anything else making it feel longer than it should. There are also the rather clumsy attempts at comedy that further derail the film, from the cops at the beginning who clown around to the degree they don't appear as genuine police to the silly werewolf make-up and the goofy encounters to stop it which are out-of-place, leaving this with its big drawbacks.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Right, well I can't exactly claim to be harboring any expectations as I sat down to watch the 2022 horror comedy titled "Werewolf Cabal" from writer and director Chris Sanders. I had never actually heard about the movie prior to getting to sit down and watch it. And seeing that the movie had Vernon Wells on the cast list, well that was something that sort of made an alarm clock go off.

But I still opted to watch the movie, on account of it being a horror comedy that I hadn't already seen.

Comedy? Nay, "Werewolf Cabal" was most definitely not a comedy. I wasn't brought to laughter once throughout the unfathomably slow paced narrative. Nor was I even brought to a smile. "Werewolf Cabal" was fully and wholly devoid of anything even remotely comedy related.

And as for it being a horror movie? Well, my friends, that might be stretching the term horror quite a bit. Unless you consider something that looked, sounded and felt like a home-made video as being horror, well, then you're in for quite a horror treat.

The acting performances in the movie were bland. Nothing noteworthy here, but thankfully I've seen worse in other movies, so that counts for something in favor of "Werewolf Cabal", I suppose.

Visually then "Werewolf Cabal" offers nothing interesting or worthwhile either. The werewolf was painfully obvious just an expensive halloween costume. And you know you're in for a bad time when a werewolf movie has werewolves with inarticulate heads, which clearly is just a furry, rubber mask.

If you enjoy werewolf movies, such as I also do, then do yourself a favor and stay well clear of "Werewolf Cabal" from writer and director Chris Sanders. The best part about "Werewolf Cabal" was actually the cover/poster.

My rating of "Werewolf Cabal" lands on a one out of ten stars.

Genuinely don't understand the positive reviews on this. It was a movie that really didn't know what tone it was trying to set, acted out by the most cardboard actors they could find, with a script written with no concept of actual human interaction.

It was kind of fun watching for obvious continuity errors and trying to guess character motivation, but the script, vfx, acting, etc. Fell well short of delivering a cohesive plot. I can understand the low budget of the film and excuse the poor visual effects on that note, but there are so many movies on similar budgets that stretch the budget so much further with better script writing and acting.

I'm mostly just confused because it's not funny enough to qualify as a "horror-comedy," nor is it serious enough to qualify as a true "slasher." I'd generally recommend avoiding this movie unless you're planning on laughing at something silly.

There's a lot going for this indie movie and, given the limited budget, I feel the filmmakers did a great job. The acting was, for the most part solid. The sound effects were great and the ambient background music very effective. Additionally, the werewolf transformations were simple, yet effective.

There were a few well known actors that I felt were, perhaps underutilized such as one of my personal favorites, the great Vernon Wells, himself.

Without spoilers, the movie started with some great comedic dialogue and this light tone continued throughout most of the movie. It didn't take itself seriously and it had a light and fluffy tone that was hilarious while still maintaining some horror elements. This silliness continued to the actual werewolf itself. The transformation was fun and effective while the actual werewolf costume was ridiculous but intentionally so. The comedic timing of the actors was great too. Antonia Whillans (Charlotte) and Derek Nelson (Michael) did well, individually, as the main protagonists. Although, I could not fault their individual acting chops in any way, I was unconvinced by the forced chemistry required of the plot. Mostly this is because the character of Charlotte was demonstrated to clearly be in love with someone else. However, it wasn't made clear if she was toying with the Michael character or had genuine feelings for him too. Jon-Paul Gates did a phenomenal job as a struggling priest and his part was definitely a show stealer and epically hilarious in a "did he actually just do that?" kind of way. I absolutely loved the light comedic tone throughout most of the movie.

Then, for the final quarter of the movie, it changed from it's previous comedic tone to trying to be a fairly serious slasher movie. Again, other than the werewolf costume itself, the serious part of the movie was filmed and presented well. Essentially, we ended up with two different movies. A light and fluffy comedic horror and a serious attempt at a slasher movie. Both parts worked well individually but put together was a rough transition and I really wish it had maintained it's comedic tone throughout the entire movie.

On the whole, I enjoyed the movie a lot but it was tainted slightly by the jarring change of style at the end. On the whole though, entertaining and worth watching at least once.