Werewolves 2024 is all Growl, No Bite

Werewolves 2024

Any time I hear about a new werewolf movie coming out, I'm there at the cinema. However, as much of a fan as I am, I'm not delusional. Werewolf movies, I hate to say, tend to be subpar. There's just something that writers can't do properly or that audiences just cannot connect with that doesn't allow the werewolf story to be as successful as it could be. 

It's not the special effects. Horror audiences crave practical effects, but we'll be satisfied with CGI, too. As long as the lore and story of the film are good. 

WEREWOLVES 2024 has decent effects but the story is extremely subpar. It pains me to say that, but it's true. 

With a pretty decent first half and a great scene of a science project gone wrong, the story quickly devolves into a road trip. A major fault I have is the relationship between the main character and his family. 

The B-movie star Frank Grillo plays Dr. Wesley Marshall, a scientist who thinks he can halt the eventual morphing of lycanthropy of every human on Earth with eye drops. The road trip he endures sees several instances with the viscous werewolves as he tries to get back to his sister-in-law and his niece. And this is the main problem I have with the story.

It isn't the acting (though it could have been much better). And it isn't the editing (though it could have been much tighter).

The issue I have is with the "familial" ties the main character has with the people back at the house. Apparently, Marshall's brother died the year prior during the first supermoon catastrophe and now Grillo's character has to take care of his brother's wife and his kid. That's not strong enough, in my opinion.

The writer should have made the family tighter, like in DIE HARD. The protagonist is on rocky terms with his wife, so he must go through hell to save her, thereby appreciating her and the family element. That's more realistic. Really, who gives a damn about their sister-in-law?

It should have been his wife. That's a no-brainer.

So, while the third act lingers way too long and the wolves not being as deadly as they should have been was a huge problem, what makes the film suffer is the nuclear family element. It didn't know what it wanted to be. 

The way the film abruptly ends is a joke. I couldn't believe they ended it like that. It deserved more. Maybe I would given the film a few more viewings before passing judgment on it. But the filmmakers didn't give a shit because they actually think they'll get a sequel from it, but they won't.