Werewolf by Night
Director: Michael Giacchino
Screenwriters: Heather Quinn, Peter Cameron
Cinematographer: Zoë White
Production Company: Marvel Studios
Distributor: Disney Studios
Release Date: 7 October 2022
Runtime: 53 minutes
MPA Rating: TV-14
Availability: Disney+
Synopsis
Marvel delivers a classic yet surprisingly gruesome Hollywood throwback in Michael Giacchino’s Werewolf by Night. One dark and gloomy night, several prestigious monster hunters are invited to compete for The Bloodstone – part ultra-monster repellant, part elixir of youth – in a monster hunt at the Bloodstone estate. Among the deadly warriors is Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal), whose timid demeanor seems at odds with his high kill count, and Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly), who’s there to get what she feels she’s owed and be rid of her family drama once and for all. The night is chock-full of over-the-top theatrics, shocking revelations, riveting action, and a LOT of gore. Assuming you want to go into this special cold, that’s all you need to know.
Analysis
First off, I enjoyed how evocative the special’s visual style was of classic Hollywood films. The camera captures scenes in a glossy black-and-white dampened by an intentional graininess; strategically timed cigarette burns only add to the “antiquated” viewing experience. The costume design is immaculate: practical effects make the titular werewolf both startling and believable, and the monster-hunters’ costumes can best be described as fashionably lethal. And the maze-like garden where the hunt begins, which features a basic yet elegant mix of concrete and flora, feels like the type of set you’d see in a 30’s Hollywood film.
The special’s score and cinematography also make for an engrossing viewing experience. Giacchino’s background as a film composer (he even composed Up!) is evident in how effectively he modulates the pitch of stringed instruments to strike a specific tone. And two shots from the finale really place the viewer into the horror: the first an Alfred Hitchcock shot (i.e., the camera zooms in on a character in the foreground while the background recedes) as someone witnesses a monstrous transformation, and the other where the camera zooms in on a massacre taking place in a dimly lit corridor, with the lens getting bloodied the closer to the action the camera gets.
While Werewolf definitely delivers on the horror element, the action occasionally feels generic. Your eyes will likely bulge seeing violence that skews from the extreme (e.g., sword to the head) to the supernatural (e.g., head being disintegrated), with the added bonus of blood splattering about like paint. And more broadly speaking, depicting the brutality of Marvel characters is a breath of fresh air for an MCU project. That being said, Werewolf still features your run-of-the-mill MCU kicks, flips, and grapples. Seeing these classic MCU moves took me out of the world of Werewolf, especially when the werewolf would do something like follow up a kick with a backflip.
And while I enjoyed the special’s dark and over-the-top tone, I still think the story could’ve been more developed. It’s surprisingly generic, has a slew of MCU tropes, and feels too rushed. There also isn’t much room to delve into the backstories of Jack and Elsa, or more importantly, the conflicts they both struggle to overcome throughout the plot. Most of these shortcomings are likely the consequence of a tight runtime, which is why I think the story would’ve been better served in a fully-fledged-out movie.
Conclusion
Though Werewolf by Night has a lot going for it in its unique visual style, arresting score and cinematography, and effective depictions of violence, it’s still lacking a compelling story. But at the end of the day, this special is primarily concerned with delivering an enjoyable viewing experience that pays homage to the classic Universal monster films of old, and in that department it unquestionably excels.