Werewolf by Night

An eclectic group of monster hunters converges on the estate of dearly departed Ulysses Bloodstone. They are there to compete for a powerful relic — also called the Bloodstone. The gem affords protection, strength, and longevity to the possessor. One caveat, they’ll have to fight a dangerous beast to get it. Among the seven attendees are the enigmatic Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal). He may not be a Terrier, but he does have a hairy problem. Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly) is the daughter of the recently deceased, a fellow monster slayer who is both Jack’s rival and teammate — but conspicuously not a love interest. Harriet Sansom Harris portrays Verussa, Ulysses’ eccentric widow.

Werewolf by Night is a unique offering in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness dipped its toe in the horror waters. Composer Michael Giacchino (Ratatouille, Up) — making his directorial debut — completely dives in. That singularity is part of this picture’s charm. The narrative spotlights a decent protagonist (Jack Russell) that doesn’t want to cause harm. Everyone else is on a different page. Also enticing is the use of practical effects and black-and-white cinematography. This allows that jewel to shine even brighter as it glows ruby red.

Just in time for Halloween, this creature feature provides a seasonal but forgettable experience for MCU completists. This adaptation is based on a Marvel comic book character first introduced in 1972 and then updated in 2020. Giacchino evokes the classic Universal monster movies of the 1930s and ’40s. Taking you out of that milieu is bloodshed that is significantly more graphic than the films of that era. That’s fine. Perhaps this is meant to be a marriage of the present and the past, but only in a very superficial sense. In comparison, The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney, Jr. had real emotional stakes.

So why does this exist? I suspect this production will ultimately serve to introduce elements we will see later in the MCU. Jack Russell and Elsa Bloodstone are a given, but I hope to see another appearance of Man-Thing. The plot is inconsequential piffle. Oh, sure, necks will be ripped, and people will burst into flames. With all apologies to writers Heather Quinn and Peter Cameron, that is not the foundation for a screenplay you can sink your teeth into. (If this were a vampire flick, that would’ve been the perfect pun.) Falling somewhere between a feature-length movie and a half-hour TV show, I admire that this delivers a simple, self-contained story. Kudos that the saga wasn’t unnecessarily stretched to 2 hours. Yet even at 53 minutes, this “special presentation” on Disney+ is such a simplistic tale that it still manages to drag.

10-10-22