I had originally intended to watch something completely different for today's review but the link had expired, and so I turned instead to the Joshua Nelson (The Things We Cannot Change) written and directed horror Aware of the Wolf. This horror might have a bit of a decent message at its heart, but the horror sure takes a long time to come.
Terry (Tony Murphy - The Things We Cannot Change) is a self help guru who provides his own special type of therapy for downtrodden, weak and mild people. He calls his class 'Terry's Transformations' and teaches that within everyone is a wolf, and that by seeking out your inner wolf you can become a predator rather than prey. Elsewhere, Detective Wagner (Suzanne Johnson - The Things We Cannot Change) and Detective Hoffman (Kelly Fine) are investigating a series of strange murders in the area, the victims covered in bite marks.
This is only the second film of Nelsons that I have watched but there really seems to be a style that is gone for. The last one of his I watched was about a vampire self-help group, and that is repeated here, with a vague werewolf tone to it instead. The majority of the film takes place at the self-help meetings in which various weak people listen to Terry as he tries to get the meek to stick up for themselves. It starts with a few different scenes showing how each of the characters are put down in their lives. You have a pregnant girl whose step-mum (Debra Holtzman - The Things We Cannot Change) constantly belittles her, you have Veer (Vamshi Krishna Achutha) whose cruel boss threatens cancelling his work visa should he try to go against her, you have a woman whose husband has no respect for her, and Ella Mae (Katie Raulerson - The Things We Cannot Change) who has let men walk over her her whole life. The actors were fine for this type of indie film, their individual antagonists might be very over the top and exaggerated but it worked in making you as the viewer pity them. Their sessions led to some cringy moments, such as when they all try and howl like wolves, but these moments feed into their lack of confidence.
The actual horror takes a very far back seat to the rest of the movie. The detectives investigating the murders only feature in a couple of short scenes, that subplot makes up less than a fifth of the overall film. A shame as the prologue featuring two lovers getting seemingly attacked by wolves out in woodland made it seem like the horror would be more pronounced. Aware of the Wolf finally gets going in its third act, but it is only really in the final scene that things begin to move, by that point it was a little too late. That isn't to say it was dull leading to that moment, but as well intentioned as some of the first two acts felt, this was light on action and heavy on scenes of people sitting around talking in the therapy sessions. Some of the make-up effects were passable, but the few times violence is shown on screen it wasn't sold that well, with actors trying to make it seem like they are throwing punches, but looking a bit lame.
I though the character of Terry was the best part of this, and I thought the later revelations about his real intentions were not that badly implemented. I also thought the Tales From the Crypt style end twist was amusing in a morality tale type of way. Far too much of the lead up to the third act had a kind of holding pattern feel to it, with not much really happening despite the amount of run time that was happening. Aware of the Wolf is out now on digital platforms worldwide (excluding Amazon Prime Video) and will head to AVOD digital platforms on 30th April.
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