mothwing | Blood and Chocolate

O M G W E R E W O L V E S ! ! ! !

Which was about my first reaction to finding that movie on what I consider to be the German Netflix. Well. Find my more coherent review below.

O M G W E R E W O L V E S ! ! ! !

The fact that this movie has werewolves who look like wolves made me want to like it in spite of the obvious mistakes and moments full of cringe-worthiness. It did not work quite as well as I had hoped, especially because the awkward CGI makes the transformation process look anything but smooth and elegant, which is apparently what they were going for.

Another major gripe I had is not only the lack of logic in the way the pack is run (a new "wife" mate every seven years? Whatever for...?) and the major errors when it comes to the way packs of wolves kill their prey. Hint: they don't start on the feet and chew their way up to the jugular. Whenever you see a wolf attacking in that movie, though, they happily tug at the trouser legs, and yet, the characters thus attacked manage to feel scared. I found it hard to resist the urge to "Awww" at the wolf so happily playing.

The plot is rather shallow. Girl is a werewolf, promised to another werewolf who is also her uncle (yuck) and rescued as a child, the general consensus being that "she owes him" (YUCK). She is above the squabbles among the pack and falls in love with a human man, a romantic and a painter. My favourite part of the movie was a dialogue between the two of them:

Wolfgirl: You have to go. (seeing as homicidal cousin has just marched in, good idea).
Painter dude: No! I have to see you again.
Wolfgirl: Believe me, you have to go.
Painter dude: You start to sound as though you mean it.
Wolfgirl: (cousin is marching into the house): Seriously, leave. Now.
Painter: All I am asking for is one night!! (... o.O)
Wolfgirl: Fine, fine, tonight, seven, whatever, and now, go!

As expected, the love story is mostly on the scary and wrong side. Wolfgirl Vivian seems to be on the run for half the movie, although the alpha male mentioned that "the women in her family were always strong", which made me cautiously optimistic at her portrayal. Still, she is on the run a lot. She runs away from her future love after their first encounter, he chases her through half the town on their second encounter (again, nothing says romance like a someone climbing a house to get away from you!).

I particularly enjoyed the wannabe-French name for the werewolves. If you are going to use a shiny term, Lady, at least fucking look up the correct plural, for heaven's sake. It's really not that hard, but not doing it makes you look incredibly dumb.

Since the movie is about werewolves from ~~Überwald~~ Europe Romania (apparently...) the cast all have generic Eastern-European accents - because we all know that authentic people from Eastern Europe speak to each other in English with thick accents. Why the main character has to be an American if her family is from Hungary is absolutely beyond me, though I suppose it's cool that they knew that there are a lot of members of the Hungarian minority in Romania? IDK. Her love interest also HAS TO BE a US American, because all the grimy locals are totally beneath her.

Cast-wise, I was floored especially by the presence of none other than Katja Riemann! Not altogether unexpected, given that the director comes from Germany herself, but still slightly off, given the film was shot somewhere else. Still, good to have someone around who can pronounce Steppenwolf correctly - which is another touch I found endearing.

So, fun to watch in spite of seriously creepy overtones.