It was sad learning that iconic cult horror actor Tony Todd had died last November. I have liked him in pretty much everything I had ever seen him in, plus a very mild claim to fame of mine had been that his Twitter (X if you Musk...I mean, must) account had followed me. Horror film Werewolf Game is one of the final films to be released featuring this horror legend. Co-directed by Cara Brennan (in their directorial debut) and Jackie Payne (who also wrote this), I had wrongly assumed by the title that this would be a horror film featuring that lamest of movie monsters - the werewolf. Instead it is a reference to the social deduction game 'Werewolf'.
Twelve strangers awaken to find themselves in a dark room surrounded by mask wearing gunmen, with no idea how they got there. The leader, The Judge (Todd - Candyman series) tells the abductees that they have been brought to an island to play a life or death game of 'Werewolf'. Hidden within the twelve members are two 'Werewolves' who have a secret task of killing the other members (named 'Villagers') without being found out, they are allocated a one hour slot in the middle of the night each night with which to do so. At the end of each day everyone has to vote on someone to be executed. Should the Werewolves be the last survivors left alive then they will win and be set free, should the Werewolves be identified and killed then the remaining Villagers will be set free. This creates an atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust, as the group try and come up with ways to escape their predicament while unsure of who the traitors within their midst are.
I liked the set-up for this, with it giving a really neat whodunnit type atmosphere of who the traitors were. The characters are a varied bunch made up of some interesting types. Most interesting to me was the suspicious Raymond (Tim Realbuto) who claims he used to work for the shady company who were responsible for the kidnappings, giving Cube Zero vibes.. Characters mostly all have suspicious sides to them which are then used against them during the voting scenes. Some of the characters had done bad things, others don't appear to have done anything wrong, making it easier to root for then the more traditional trope of bad people having been abducted such as with the Saw series. As harsh the situation is that the characters find themselves in, there are actually worse murder island fates to be had than with this one. During the day the characters are free to roam the island unimpeded, only captured by the armed guards should they try to escape. They are able to have private meetings as a group, and are provided with some food and drink. People who are killed via the voting system are also dealt with relatively peacefully, with a single gun shot to the head ending their suffering, rather than any type of prolonged torture. The story felt a little underdeveloped at the sides, some parts didn't seem to make much sense due to a lack of context. This even includes the surreal The Prisoner/Battle Royale style ending that gave the survivors a chance to face their jailor.
Some of the protagonists were really annoying, chief for me was Seth (André Tempfer), the most vocal of the group, though amusingly, his fellow abductees also find him quite annoying. Favourite minor role went to the very prolific Robert Picardo who played a hard boiled detective type character. The stand out was thankfully Todd himself. Wearing a smiling mask for much of the film, his over the top performance was delightful, Todd seemed to be enjoying this role a lot from the effort he puts into it. Many of the actors gave performances that seemed a bit too overly dramatic, if the film hadn't been so fun this might have become a problem, but with most characters being over the top it seemed to just add to the charm. I liked the parts featuring the werewolves attacking victims at night, always preceded by a first person viewpoint of them racing through woodland with Predator style heat vision, and the design of their wolf costumes were genuinely really cool looking. With this part, it was a little too obvious who one of the werewolves would turn out to be as they had a distinct look to them that couldn't be hidden by a mask.
I found Werewolf Game impossible not to be charmed by. Elements of the story were not that well explained, and the po-faced delivery of some really cheesy lines threatened to break the immersion at times, but this was just a fun action horror that really worked as a bit of escapism, and it was always a delight to see the late great Tony Todd in a joyously evil role. Werewolf Game releases January 21st from The Horror Collective on-demand and across digital platforms.
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