Product description
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Werewolf: The Beast Among Us takes Universal Studios' historic
monster legacy to an all-new level of chilling action and
terrifying suspense. When a mysterious creature terrorizes a
village by moonlight a local young man Daniel convinces a team of
skilled werewolf hunters to let him join their quest to hunt it
down. But as the villagers are attacked one by one and turned
into vicious beasts Daniel begins to fear that his ruthless foe
is someone closer than anyone thinks. Starring Stephen Rea Ed
Quinn Steven Bauer and Nia
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Universal Studios has always been a happy home for monster
movies. As honored in the deluxe-package release of Universal
classics Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The
Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, and
Creature from the Black Lagoon, the studio's franchise legacy
remains one of American cinema's historic achievements. The
direct-to-home-video feature Werewolf: The Beast Among Us is a
direct descendent that is as proud of its B movie values as it is
of the gruesomely explicit tale of a mythic monster and the
formulaic way it binds character and story into salable
entertainment. The eastern European village of some indeterminate
19th-century setting has been terrorized for years by wolf
creatures that savagely tear apart or devour their prey under the
daylight glow of the full moon. A brief prologue introduces us to
a little boy who survives an attack that leaves him an orphan and
the bearer of his her's wolf-hunter amulet. Thirty years later
we again meet the hardhearted Charles (Ed Quinn), leader of a
marauding band of werewolf bounty hunters who trek the
countryside ridding small towns of the evil man-beast creatures.
The archetypal device of a virus that turns survivors of a
werewolf attack into werewolves themselves remains at the heart
of the story, and the disease is in full bloom across
Transylvania. That address becomes significant in the grand
finale as kin to another of Universal's famous creatures reveals
itself. It also lends much needed authenticity to the production,
which was on location and makes excellent use of gothic town
squares, especially when they are strewn with mutilated corpses
after a night of full-moon terror. The motley assortment of
hunters makes a colorful cast, who each have their own
specialties in the ways of killing werewolves. An eye-patched
Steven Bauer is representative of the rollicking posse of
characters, doing as much scenery chewing as the part-CGI,
part-furry costumed beast. The other name actor in Werewolf is
Stephen Rea as a grizzled doctor whose lifelong study of the
creature is bent on finding a cure, if not a means of controlling
the ghastly disease. But his motives may not be as altruistic as
they seem, especially to his young protégé Daniel (Guy Wilson),
who comes to understand his own destiny and his mentor's
underlying motives a little too late. There's lots of
swashbuckling action, bawdy subterfuge (Nia Peeples, who plays
Daniel's mother, runs the local bordello), and pleasantly
groan-inducing humor along the way. But mostly it's the graphic
carnage of this orgy of severed body parts, rivers of blood, and
headless bodies that will charm its horror film-buff audience. As
indicated, this is strictly B movie material with a
by-the-numbers script, unremarkable direction, and a giddy
over-the-topness that works within its limitations by assuming an
appropriate sense of irony. There are a handful of interesting
extras that cover the production from several angles, including
its effectively seat-of-the-pants special effects and Werewolf's
provenance as an heir to the Universal horror legacy. --Ted Fry