Unlike the over abundance of vampire films that plague the rental store shelves werewolf films seem to be taking a back seat to all the other monster sub-genres. With the remake of THE WOLFMAN on the way sometime next year, it looks like we’ll start to see this sub-genre rise again, and with that usually comes the low-budget direct to DVD stuff. In the case of this movie; NEVER CRY WEREWOLF it’s a low budget movie, that has both it’s up and downs, but even though it elements of filmmaking are nothing special in terms of a fun horror movie to watch, it does deliver.
NEVER CRY WEREWOLF takes it’s roots from films like FRIGHT NIGHT, REAR WINDOW, CURSED and DRACULA. Though it’s not as good as any of those films (Maybe CURSED). The film stars Nina Dobrev as a girl named Loren who has a feeling that her new next store neighbor might be a werewolf. She does a little spying with her brother’s telescope and finds that there is indeed something going on. She enlists the help of one of her brothers friend and together they travel to a sporting goods store where they meet the legendary game hunter Redd Tucker (Kevin Sorbo). Together they will search for the truth and try to rid the town of the person responsible for murders of many people within the town, and the guy just happens to be a Werewolf.
From my point of view looking at the overall production of this film it almost seems like it’s a film that was generally made for a DVD release run and of course it made it’s debut on The Sci-fi Channel. Looking over what the script of this movie bought to the plate, it seems like the writers decided to take an approach where the script would appeal to a younger crowd, but keep the idea simplified enough so that a more seasoned horror fan would catch on to the movies that NEVER CRY WEREWOLF pays homage too. I for one found the script to be unoriginal, but on the other hand it had the potential to be fun movie, and that is really what it is. The script provides us with a fun popcorn movie like story, but is no means a great script. The dialogue is a bit corny and some of the scenes were not written all that great, but overall what this script did provide is a movie that is really meant to be more fun than serious.
The movies overall production value is not one that is too great, while I did enjoy the scene that took place in the sporting goods and gun shop store, I can’t say that the effects in this movie are anything great. Besides the fact that the visual effects looked to be overly computer animated; even the special make-up effects were nothing great. The Werewolf costume looked like that frozen bigfoot suit that was used in that hoax last month. You can really tell that it’s just a guy in a suit.
I’m not going to be to hard on the actors who worked on this film, because I do in fact think that the performances were not that bad. The lead actress in the film, Nina Dobrev did a very good job with her role as Loren. Peter Stebbings who played Jared Martin, the guy whom is the films villain was really great in his role as well and does deserve some credit. In the end however it was Kevin Sorbo who really stole the show with his performance as the Indiana Jones wildman Redd Tucker.
Overall, all I can really say about NEVER CRY WEREWOLF is that it’s a movie that’s nothing special, but it gets it’s point across and is a fun film to watch. In retrospect it’s a movie that has more of a MONSTER SQUAD feel to it while borrowing it’s plot from some of horror’s classics. NEVER CRY WEREWOLF is a popcorn movie. It’s a movie that I think teenage kids will enjoy on DVD, and I think that horror fans will appreciate what it’s trying to do, but will most likely either dislike the movie or agree with myself about the overall outcome of this picture.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
