Luke McWilliams gives his review of the 2021 comedy horror, Werewolves Within, starring Sam Richardson and Milana Vayntrub.
Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) travels to his new assignment in the small remote town of Beaverfield in Vermont. Finn soon befriends mail carrier Cecily Moore (Milana Vayntrub) who introduces him to the town’s wacky residents, divided over the proposed development of a pipeline. That night, however, a snowstorm knocks out the town’s power and a body that looks like it has been torn apart by a large animal turns up.
The closed-room murder mystery is a very old mystery sub-genre. Widely introduced by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841, the structure has been used from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes adventures to Agatha Christie’s myriad of mysteries.
Werewolves Within takes the structure, the ambience and the tropes of the whodunit murder mystery and adds the possibility that our murderer may also be a werewolf; all have motive, the opportunity, and the ability to host a primal anger toward their neighbour. Our residents are from all walks of life, seeking seclusion for their own reasons …
Reeling from his girlfriend breaking up with him, ‘nice guy’ Finn is undertaking self-learning to tap into his primordial, masculine self. Cecily takes a shine to our hero, but even she laments he should ‘man-up’ about his situation. A werewolf amongst the townsfolk may prove an opportune test!
Verdict: A very funny take on the old-fashioned murder mystery, whose wacky characters come very close to overstaying their welcome. Great fun. 4 stars.
Werewolves Within is playing at Dendy cinemas.
- Luke McWilliams | themovieclub.net
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