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For a long time, all the projects involving Marvel’s pure horror characters in
both film and the printed page (such as the Nicholas Cage Ghost Rider films, the bloodless
Morbius
film and the current Midnight Suns comic) have been major disappointments. I admit that the first two Blade films
and this years Disney Plus
Moon
Knight
show were both quite good. I've gone into greater depth on Marvel's comic and
film depictions of the horror genre in my essay series: "Why
Horror Fans should Hate Marvel Comics".
With this preamble an a a few qualifications, the new Disney Plus Werewolf by Night special
bucks the trend creating a well
mounted, spine-tingling terrifying triumph. My biggest complaint is that at 53
minutes, it is far too short, and I wanted to see more development of all of the
main characters. I would have gladly watched a five-hour version of this story.
Werewolf by Night is an imaginative, exciting, and action-packed Marvel TV
project that dips more deeply into the horror genre than any other Marvel
production including
Moon
Knight and
Doctor Strange and the Multi-Verse of Madness. The
film is much richer than it has to be, and it might be the finest Marvel
TV project since Jessica Jones. It puts many of the recent conventional Phase 4
Marvel superhero shows like Falcon and Winter Soldier and She Hulk to shame,
making them look like kid’s stuff.
The movie was directed by Michael Giachinno, who is best known for creating
award winning scores for films like
UP
and
Ratatouille. His atmospheric score
for this film is perfect, and he also proves here that he has serious directing
chops. I especially liked how he handled the less is more transformation scene
towards the end of the film which shows a Val Lewton like restraint. If Marvel
does any future horror cross-over's, he would be the perfect choice.
The tele-film hints right away that we are going to see something different when
we see the traditional Marvel banner filled with superheroes then the screen
shot looks like it was torn apart by unseen animal claws followed by ominous
ancient sounding music. The film then depicts pages from an ancient book that
shows monsters including a possible vampire who resembles Varney, the first
vampire in the Marvel comics universe, and a Bigfoot or Wendigo that a hunter
killed and the weapons he used to kill them. We are told that the hunter is the
recently deceased, Ulysses Bloodstone, the father of, Elisa, the lead female
character in the film. We hear his voice emanating from an animatronic doll
which resembles the crypt creeper and even shares his macabre sense of humor.
The film stars Gael Garcia Bernal, the superb Mexican actor who was in several
classic Spanish language films including Bad Education, Amors Perros and Y Tu
Mamma Tambien as the title character. Although he does not resemble the comic
character much, Bernal shines as Jack Russell (like in the dog get it?).
Bernal’s quiet performance has dramatic weight and his character is mysterious,
enigmatic yet sympathetic. Some people might complain about the ethnicity switch
but unlike the other times Marvel did this (like in the case of the Ancient One
and don’t get me started on Namor) this time making the main character Hispanic
and giving him a Day of the Dead makeup look makes him more potentially
interesting than his comic counterpart.
Russell is part of a collection of monster hunters who gather together on a
special tournament, but no one knows he is also a monster (presumably he was a
werewolf when he created such a big death count). The same basic idea of a bunch
of people that secretly contains a werewolf among them was also used in the
Amicus cult film: This Beast Must Die, a cross between a
Hammer horror film and an Agatha Christie story. The hunters were assembled by Verusa, the widow of Ulysses (character actress, Harriet Sanson Harris.) The group is asked to hunt down a monster who has the powerful
blood stone which once belonged to Ulysses.
Werewolf by Night features several longtime Marvel horror characters and Jack
has a few friends in the monster community. Elisa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly,
the Irish actor from The Nevers) is the daughter of Ulysses, a monster hunter
with expert fighting skills on par with the late Natasha Romanoff. Originally
the Marvel version was a Buffy rip-off, but this film’s version of her is based
more on Warren Ellis’s more interesting incarnation of the character which
appeared in the entertaining Next Wave comic. She is the character that we
probably identify most with the others coming off as
megalomaniacal slime balls. She also serves as a potential love interest for
Jack. Jack also has an unlikely friendship with the shambling more plant than
animal muck monster: Man-thing, whose appearance is the undisputed high point of
the film. He is an extremely impressive combo of vines, moss, and roots with
just enough semblance of humanity to make him likeable, He looks great, moves
great and is guaranteed to sell a million action figures. It is an infinitely
more effective depiction of the swamp monster than the one we saw in the barely
released pre-MCU Sci-Fi channel film.
The other monster hunters are a bit less memorable, barely fleshed out, and they
sometimes border on being generic. There is Azrael, (Eugenie Bondarunt) a trans
member who resembles the singer, Klaus Nomi; an Asian martial arts guy with a
cross bow, Liorn (Leonard Lam); an African American, Barasso, and Jovan, a
bearded Scotsman Jovan (played by Kirk Thatcher the punk on the bus in
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home). All of the hunters are pitted against each other in mortal combat as
well as some monsters, and the victor will receive a mystical gem which will
enhance the winners strength, longevity, and speed. If you read the Bloodstone
comics you can probably guess who the victor will be.
The film also cleverly subverts monster story tropes including the myth of the
minotaur. In the myth the participants navigate in a maze and they must survive
the attack of a killer monster, but here the ultimate goal of the contest for
one of the main protagonists is to save a benevolent creature. In addition, this
makes us question the whole idea of monster hunting because some of the monster
hunters are more evil or destructive than the so-called monsters. In a curious,
round about way the film ends up being a plea for tolerance.
But it's the look of the film and the color coding that really makes the film
truly special. Most of the film is shot in black in white in homage to the
classic Universal and RKO monster films like The Wolfman, King Kong and the Cat
People, which
are obvious influences on the film. The black and white might also
correspond to the black and white view of the universe with monsters
representing evil and the hunters representing good that the previous members
of the Bloodstone family had. When Elisa meets a friendly monster and sees a
more nuanced, morally ambiguous world with less clear-cut heroes and villains,
color suddenly invades the shots from her perspective indicating a
transformative psychological moment. A true epiphany for her.
Werewolf by Night has exquisite production design, and (along with
Pearl)
it is one of the best-looking horror films of the year. It would be a shame if
this film is overlooked because of the relative obscurity of the characters (the
Werewolf by Night comic and character have not been popular since the
early ‘70s). Despite its relative brevity, this horror thriller has more
creativity and good stuff in it than most of this year’s seasonal theatrically
released Halloween releases and it is a veritable feast for the eyes.
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