Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (January 29, 2025)
Though 21st century horror seems dominated by movies about vampires and zombies, we still get sporadic tales of lycanthropes. These don’t seem to generate great business, though, as demonstrated by the disappointing box office take of 2025’s high-profile Wolf Man.
Still, this remains a sturdy genre. For another recent entry, we go to 2024’s Werewolves.
When a “supermoon” event occurs, it transforms more than one billion people into werewolves for one night annually – if touched by moonlight, that is. One year later, the world continues to deal with this threat.
Former Marine Wesley Marshall (Frank Grillo) becomes the Global Rapid Response Team Leader who must find ways to deal with the upcoming supermoon. He works with scientists Dr. Amy Chen (Katrina Law) and Dr. James Aranda (Lou Diamond Phillips) to find a cure and contend with the latest violence.
As noted, lycanthrope films seem to be a tough sell for modern audiences. Sure, movies that include werewolves have done fine – ala the Twilight franchise – but flicks that primarily focus on these critters just don’t sell mass numbers of tickets.
Like I mentioned, even with a lot of promotion behind it, 2025’s Wolf Man sputtered at the box office, and a look at online listings of genre grosses indicates that the top-selling true werewolf movie came from 1994’s Wolf. Not that it did particularly well, as even with the tantalizing concept of a lycanthropic Jack Nicholson, it didn’t turn a profit.
I couldn’t find a budget for Werewolves, but I suspect it didn’t cost much. The movie gives off an inexpensive vibe that screams “direct to video”.
Werewolves did get a moderate theatrical release in the US, albeit one that didn’t last long. While it debuted on 1351 screens, two weeks later it ran on a mere 25!
I guess that’s what happens when a movie barely makes $1 million during its opening weekend. The smattering of moviegoers who did see Werewolves must not have liked it and bad word of mouth tanked it.
I won’t offer a defense of that poor reputation, as Werewolves largely deserves it. While I’ve certainly seen worse horror films, this one simply doesn’t click.
Much of the problem stems from the way that Werewolves feels like an amalgam of influences. In addition to the standard horror tropes, it tosses in aspects of Outbreak, Aliens, A Quiet Place, The Purge and other films.
I wouldn’t mind these nods to various flicks so much if they seemed less obvious. They also would create fewer issues if Werewolves managed to do anything with the various pilfered concepts.
Werewolves basically just exists as a nearly random collection of scenes without much to connect them. The narrative seems barely coherent and we never find much reason to bond with the characters.
A werewolf flick with poorly executed werewolves seems doomed to failure. If we don’t buy the monsters, the rest lacks much chance of success.
If bad effects became the only issue here, I’d chalk up Werewolves as a near miss. Instead, it suffers from too many problems to threaten to give us a good mix of horror and action.
