American Werewolves is the latest documentary from Seth Breedlove (On the Trail of UFOs: Night Visitors, Momo: The Missouri Monster) and as the title obviously implies, this is all about werewolves (known here also as dogmen/upright canids). I wasn't even aware that there were still sightings of these creatures, I thought the only place they would be seen in modern day was horror movies.
The usual style of these documentaries will be a combination of eye witness accounts, expert analysis and a more typical narration. American Werewolves does things a little differently in that the majority of the hour and twenty five minutes is dedicated to eye witness accounts. The vibe here is one of horror, this is reflected in the style of music played, the dark recreations, and the effect used on some footage to make it seem like rough VHS footage.
Apparently each year in America there are dozens of encounters with upright canids reported in North America so it isn't too rare an occurrence. The eyewitness accounts making up most of this meant they needed to be engaging. What you have is around a dozen full accounts that range from the more mundane to the truly nightmarish. Some of these sounded so out there that they felt like a synopsis for a horror film than fact. The people telling their accounts all seemed to genuinely believe what they were saying, you can see the tears in their eyes as they retell their stories, hear their voice shaking at points. From a man telling about the time he was followed by something hidden within cornfields as he ran at night as a teen, to a man whose hunting trip goes very wrong when him and his hunting buddy find their campsite under assault by creatures with glowing red eyes. These accounts were interesting to listen to.
Due to the way this is set out, I did wish there had been a little bit of downtime to split up the different stories being told. They are mixed up nicely, the very last one for instance was the most horror filled one. There are various places in America these stories come from, such as the ominous sounding 'land between the lakes' and with some of these locations local experts also give their knowledge. There was never a view whether what is being said is meant to be taken as fact or if the people mistook what they saw, instead it is straight up accounts that are not questioned.
I often comment on how I think werewolves are the most boring movie monster, but these real life accounts taken at face value are disturbing. Whatever actually occurred, the people here sound and look genuine, making for a documentary that was certainly interesting, but which, I felt, could have used something to split up the long line of accounts. American Werewolves comes to cable VOD and Digital HD from 1091 Pictures on July 5th.
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