Animals

You may recall my assertion there aren’t that many great werewolf movies. Today we have another contender, the 2008 film Animals. Will it crack my all-time list?

Jarrett (Marc Blucas, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is a former football star who had his dreams crushed by a knee injury, forcing him to return to his hometown, Clayton Valley. There he works in construction for an overbearing boss and forgets his troubles each night at his friend’s bar. Vic (Naveen Andrews) and Nora (Nicki Aycox) are two transients, moving around the country by car. Nora wants to escape from Vic, but he always tracks her down.

As you can probably guess, Vic is a werewolf, and Nora is infected as well. She manages to elude him and ends up in dear old Clayton Valley, where she sees Jarrett as a possible protector. She seduces him, and passes the infection along in hopes he will be able to stand up to Vic. Doing so will bring tragedy to Jarrett’s little town, but Nora isn’t exactly your hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold type.

There’s not a lot to be said about the story, as it is pretty straightforward. Nora Infects Jarrett, Jarrett fights Vic and loses, Jarrett fights Vic again. You know have a couple outline of the plot.

The acting is decent, with the main cast plus Eva Amurri as Jarrett’s waitress friend who pines for him doing the best they can with the material. The direction is somewhat competent, although the director (or editor) uses jump cuts at odd and meaningless times, as well as peculiar slow motion, and the movie looks as if the entire thing was shot with inadequate lighting, though not as dark as some of the disasters I’ve seen. There is a great emphasis on sex, and some of the scenes seem to be going for a Cinemax-type appeal. If these were the only flaws, the movie might be a decent way to pass an evening if expectations were low.

However, the movie contains maybe the worst CGI I’ve ever seen, and I’ve watched a lot of SyFy channel movies. The werewolves look more horse-like than wolf-like, glow, and are cartoonish. If you are old enough to remember games on the Atari 2600, you’ve seen much better animation there. Also, except for color variations, all the werewolves are identical after the change, so when they fight, you don’t know who is biting who.

Perhaps the final word on the film is the director Douglas Aarniokoski didn’t want his name on the film. He used the alias Arnold Cassius instead.
Animals is based on the final book written by the legendary splatterpunk writing team of John Skipp and Craig Spector, and adapted for the screen by Spector. Skipp and Spector produced some really good books, but, in my opinion, there was a decline in quality toward the end, and Animals was not one of their better ones.

You should see this if you have an overwhelming desire to see Nicki Aycox naked. Otherwise, spare yourself the lame CGI and give it a miss. I don’t think it’s worth it. Also, be forewarned: other than the names of the cast, the DVD cover has nothing to do with the movie inside.
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The Four Essential Werewolf Movies

So, as promised, here is a list of the only werewolf movies that are a true must-see. I like lists for some perverse reason, and it is traditional to go with a top ten. However, I don’t think there are ten truly outstanding werewolf movies. These choices reflect my own personal taste, and you may disagree completely, which is cool. I bet if Teen Wolf is on your list, you are still proud of that mullet, too. They are presented in chronological order.

1. The Wolf Man (1941) – It wasn’t the first werewolf movie – it wasn’t even the first for Universal, as Werewolf of London beat it by half a decade. But this is the one that stuck in our collective unconscious, and much of what we think of when we think of werewolves comes from this movie. The problem with silver, full moon causing the transformation, the pentagram on the palm of the next victim – all here. You have to not wonder at how the very American Lon Chaney, Jr. could be the son of the very British Claude Rains, but if you’re willing to accept a man turning into a wolf, why not?

2. An American Werewolf in London (1981) – It took forty years to get to the next classic film of lycanthropy, and John Landis had actually been working on the story since he was nineteen, but this mixture of horror and humor succeeded on both levels. Introducing the brilliant concept of the werewolf being haunted by the decomposing ghosts of its victim (Griffin Dunne was perfect) it captured movie-goers’ imaginations and was a financial success not matched by a werewolf flick since. On re-watching this, I felt David Naughton’s character was more obnoxious and a bigger jerk than I remembered, but I was probably about his age the first time I saw it, and probably shared the same personality traits.

3. Ginger Snaps (2000) – This low budget Canadian film of two unusual teenage sisters, one of whom begins to turn into a you-know-what is great as a simple horror movie and as a metaphor for the transformation of a girl into a woman. Blood, body hair, it all fits. It was successful enough a sequel and a prequel were subsequently filmed, and surprisingly enough, neither of them was bad at all, with the prequel being pretty darn good. Hurrah for Canada. It’s never really had a good DVD release in the U.S. maybe the eventual blu-ray will make up for that.

4. Dog Soldiers (2002) – I just talked about this low budget film, a British movie filmed in Luxembourg pretending to be Scotland. A good cast makes this story of soldiers versus a werewolf pack hum.

There are several near misses. Werewolf of London, I Was A Teenage Werewolf (despite the title), The Howling (certain to be debated, although it seems dated to me) will all have their adherents, and I’ll confess to even enjoying the ill-fated Cursed of a few years ago. You have my permission to disagree, not that you need it.
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Dog Soldiers

The werewolf is one of the better known creatures from horror stories. Herodotus wrote about them, and the stories of men turning into wolves or other animals were probably old in his time. Despite the antiquity, werewolves haven’t fared particularly well in films. In my personal opinion, there have only been four truly must see werewolf movies, and this review is of the most recent of them, Dog Soldiers.*

A British army section (six men instead of the usual eight) is dispatched to a remote portion of Scotland for a training exercise, carrying blank ammunition. Little do they know, but they are actually there to serve as bait. Apparently, the British government has learned of the existence of a werewolf stalking the forested land of Robert the Bruce, and, in the grand tradition of evil governments, wants to catch it for possible use as a weapon. An SAS stick is watching the unlucky soldiers to catch the creature when it comes for them, but there is a miscalculation. There isn’t just one werewolf, but a pack of them and the stick is slaughtered before they have a chance to fight. The other soldiers discover this, appropriate their weapons and pick up their sleazy commander, and begin the risky business of surviving until morning, when presumably the sun will turn their stalkers back into humans. They are guided by a pretty local zoologist, although they forego the opportunity to ask her as many questions as they should.

The producers chose not to go the modern CGI route for the movie, instead using practical effects, animatronics, and people in costume (on stilts, for the illusion of height) and it works well. For one thing, it means the creatures are seen mostly in glimpses until the end of the movie, which heightens the suspense. The cast is also very good. The most recognizable faces to American audiences would be Kevin McKidd (Rome), and the always-good Sean Pertwee (Event Horizon, The Mutant Chronicles). The actors playing the soldiers do a good job of handling the “squaddies-in-peril” aspect of the film, even mentioning, Rorke’s Drift, the inspiration for the film Zulu at one point. The gore effects are well done but not excessive. It was directed by Neil Marshall, who also gave us the good The Descent and the disappointing Doomsday.

One of the things I really liked was when the werewolves attacked, the soldiers acted like soldiers (or soljas, as Pertwee’s character says). They execute a retreat under fire, covering their rear as they retreat, they practice conservation of their scarce ammunition, and when they get to a shelter, they immediately begin hardening it to strengthen its defenses. Most importantly, chain of command for the section stays intact. Even in military movies, soldiers are usually depicted as falling into anarchy when threatened.

I found the movie suspenseful, humorous in the right spots (there’s a Matrix reference that made me laugh the first time I saw it, although time may have dimmed the effect of that one) and consistent in its internal mythology. If you haven’t seen it, you probably should give it a chance.

For years, there was a sequel planned for the movie, but talk of that seems to have died down, and there is now little chance of it happening, it seems.

The one big disappointment here is the blu-ray presentation. It is at best little upgrade over previous DVD editions, and may be a step back. The transfer rate hovers around 1000, where most blu-rays are over 4000 (and most DVDs 448) and the picture quality is about the same as the DVD releases. Any improvement to the sound quality is likewise unnoticeable, and it does not have audio encoded in DTS or PCM formats. Even worse, the special features found on the earlier DVDs, including two information commentaries, are missing, and the movie is presented in a bare bones package. I assume this is so they may be restored later in a “Deluxe Re-Mastered” blu-ray, but this is a cheat.

* Curious as to what the other three films are? Of course you are. Check back here later for my "Four Essential Werewolf Movies".
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Ronald Kelly's 3rd Annual Halloween Contest

Each year, author Ronald Kelly holds a Halloween contest on his website. This year, the prizes are particularly good: 3 personally inscribed Ronald Kelly werewolf stories, a large Alex McVey print, the Universal Wolfman Legacy collection, and best of all, the forthcoming reissue of Ron's werewolf novel Undertaker's Moon. Head on over to ronaldkelly.com and get registered!

In more Ronald Kelly news, his most recent novel Hell's Hollow is now available in e-book form for the bargain price of $4.99. If the recent edition was beyond your budget, or you simply prefer the convenience of the e-format, head over to Crossroads Press to download it.
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Underworld 4

Here’s some news from Dread Central that’s sure to elicit mixed reactions: filming will begin in March on the fourth installment of the vampires-vs.-werewolves Underworld series, with Kate Beckinsale returning as the vampire “death-dealer” Selene. This has been a love it or hate it series of films, so I’m sure there will be as many groans as cheers. I’ve enjoyed the first three, so I’m looking forward to it, although I hope they don’t bother with the already tired 3-D fad.
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The Nightwalker

Leisure Books promoted 2008 as the “Year of the Werewolf” in horror fiction (giving rise to the slogan, “Werewolf is the new zombie), with three titles involving lycanthropy in the first half of the year. The first was J.F. Gonzalez’ Shapeshifter, and the third was Ray Garton’s Ravenous (Garton has also published a sequel to Ravenous called Bestial), coming in a couple of months. Thie middle title in the triumvirate is a reprint of Thomas Tessier’s classic novel from 1979, The Nightwalker. Looking back, the werewolf craze never really caught hold, but the three are all fine stories in their own right.

The Nightwalker is the story of Bobby Ives, a Vietnam veteran living in London who is apparently recovering from psychological trauma suffered during the war. Bobby begins suffering strange symptoms, a recurrent catatonia and odd feelings in his extremities. Eventually, his behavior deteriorates to the point of murder, as he is overcome by irresistible impulses. Personally, he becomes more callous and narcissistic. Bobby comes to the belief that he has lived before, as the owner of a Caribbean plantation, and that he has been cursed into becoming a werewolf. Tessier’s prose is masterful, and the central intrigue of the novel is whether Bobby is really becoming a werewolf, or if he is just a psychotic with canine delusions.

Because the original novel is about 200 pages long, and Leisure tries to make all their publications just a little more than 300 pages, a bonus novella is included, as with previous Leisure releases. This sort of bonus is one I appreciate, and offers interesting bonuses to fans. The included novella here is The Dreams of Dr. Ladybank, a 100 page story written by Tessier in 1991. It’s about a psychologist who learns he can mentally control the actions of two of his patients. As always with Tessier, it is well written, but it is just too long, as the concept can’t sustain a 100 page story. You know where it’s going, and you just become impatient for it to get there so you can be through.

So, my judgment is: Thumbs up for The Nightwalker, thumbs down for The Dreams of Dr. Ladybank. The book includes an introduction by Jack Ketchum and an afterword by the author himself.

The Totem

The Totem is one of those horror novels considered to be iconic. I read it way, way back in the 1980s, and most of the details had fled my mind, so I thought it was time to give it a re-read. It is considered by its author David Morrell, to be his one out and out horror novel, and appears in Horror: The 100 Best Books. The version I read is a relatively new one. Apparently, when the book was published back in the 70s, the publisher convinced Morrell to cut it severely, making it, in the author’s words, “twice as fast, half as long.” The revision was done for the late Donald Grant’s company in the early 90s.

Nathaniel Slaughter is the police chief of a small town called Potter’s Field (we’re getting into Pilgrim’s Progress territory here) in the American West. Slaughter had been a big city cop who fled to what he hoped would be a quieter, saner existence. This has worked out pretty well, but now animals and people are turning up missing, and there have been strange attacks by an unknown animal. Before it’s over, Chief Slaughter will probably wish he’d stayed in Detroit.

This is more-or-less a werewolf novel, although the transformation is accomplished by a rabies-like virus rather than some supernatural means. Slaughter is a likeable character, and the reader finds himself rooting for him, especially against the stereotypically sleazy mayor. Morrell, as always, has a gift for words.

But I can’t help feeling his long-ago editor may have gotten it right. This is a very deliberately paced novel, and it suffers in many places with the reader moving ahead of the protagonists in figuring out what’s going on. It’s a long road to the climax, and when you finally get there, you feel it is over too soon, considering how long it took to get there. There is a point where all the secrets have been revealed, and you’re ready for the big finish, but the book still meanders along a little bit first.

It’s still not a bad book, Morrell is too talented for that. I just don’t think this version deserves a place on a list of the 100 best books in horror. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to re-read the original version one day to compare the two.
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Bestial

Ray Garton’s previous novel Ravenous ended somewhat surprisingly, with the werewolves in control of the town of Big Rock, California. It was the sort of ending that cried out for further resolution, and in Garton’s latest, Bestial, he takes up where Ravenous left off.

Bestial is not only the sequel to Ravenous, but also uses characters from Night Life, which was set in the universe of his earlier Live Girls. Confused? Just consider Bestial the Grand Unified Field Theory of Garton’s fiction.

Gavin Keoph and Karen Moffat, two private investigators working for horror writer Martin Burgess are dispatched by Burgess to Big Rock, where Taggart, the werewolf clan leader, is now sheriff, and has exerted complete control over the town. Still emotionally scarred by the events of Night Life, Keoph and Moffat are scarcely prepared for what they are walking into. The first werewolf/human hybrid has been born, and the lycanthropes are awaiting its accelerated development to signal a new phase in evolution, one that will make them the dominant species on the planet. Keoph and Moffat, with the help of some unexpected allies, will have to stop this plan, or humanity has a furry future.

I enjoyed Ravenous a lot, but I think Bestial is even better. Garton as always writes a face-paced page-turner, and mixes in gore seamlessly so it doesn’t seem exploitative. The characters are fully developed and mostly sympathetic, and Taggart is enough of a classic villain that you will be rooting for his comeuppance. If there is a flaw in my eyes, it is the appearance of the “cavalry” is a bit too Deus ex machine for me, although the appearance is set up early on. This is not enough to detract that much from the book, though. I’d recommend this book whole-heartedly.

One of the interesting things in the book is the use of the Seventh Day Adventist religion. It is fairly common knowledge that Garton was raised an Adventist, and he takes you into the lives of some of the believers, and the religion is not presented very sympathetically. Adventists would probably be offended, but then they would not read the novel anyway, nor this blog. (On a personal side-note, the city where I live is the home of Oakwood College, one of the larger Adventist schools, so interaction with them is common here.)

As a general note, a recent post by Ronald Kelly on his blog talked about how Leisure didn’t like the longer novels of the type that were popular in the 1980s, preferring a length that came in at about 300 pages, about half the length of the horror epics of the past. It occurs to me that writers are dealing with this limitation by splitting books in half and publishing the parts as separate entities. Garton’s Ravenous and Bestial, and Brian Keene’s The Rising and City of the Dead work better (in my opinion) when read as one long work, and would have almost certainly have been published in one volume in, say, 1988. I’d advise you read them as such.
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Shapeshifter

Shapeshifter is a hybrid of werewolf story and crime thriller, written by J. F. Gonzalez (Clickers I & II, Survivor). The main character is a young man named Mark Wiseman who, for reasons unknown has been stricken since his teens with the curse of lycanthropy. Mark is an ambivalent character. Although he is not blatantly evil, he does come across as somewhat indifferent to the fate of those he kills following his monthly transformation. He wishes he didn’t have to do it, but he has come to accept it as a part of the natural order of things. Over time, Mark has learned how to at least partially control his bestial side, and settled into a quiet life working on computers for a large insurance company, until he is seen in a partial transformation on CCTV by the president of the company. The president is much closer to real evil than Mark. He uses Mark’s abilities to kill those who are on the opposite side of an upcoming merger issue, and to protect his place in the company. He forces Mark into this by blackmail and physical threats. Mark resents this, but doesn’t protest too much. I did wonder at why he went along with the evil CEO’s schemes for so long. Eventually, one of the assassinations is bungled, and Mark is on the run for his life.

This was a fast-paced book, and I read it in a day. Gonzalez has an easy, very readable style, and I would recommend this book. Some may be put off by the lack of a sympathetic character, since Mark himself doesn’t seem particularly noble. It is also interesting to compare this with Gonzalez' earlier work and see how much he has progressed as a writer.
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Moonbane

“Why do werewolves howl at the moon?
Because that’s where they originally came from!”

That’s the tagline for Al Sarrantonio’s 1989 novel Moonbane. Out of print for some time, it has now been re-issued in an attractive hardcover from Cemetery Dance, featuring a cover by Alan M. Clark, and interior illustrations by Keith Minnion. In it, Sarrantonio takes one of the classic monster archetypes (the werewolf) and melds it with a classic from science fiction, in this case H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. It is a delightful, fast-paced B-movie of a book.

Jason Blake is a poet (oddly enough, not starving) living in west Texas with his wife and son. Father and son are watching the Geminid meteor shower when the sky is set alight by many more meteors than expected, one of which falls to Earth nearby. Upon investigation, the younger Blake is bitten by an animal which crawls out of the meteor. This will be a tragic night for Jason Blake.

It seems years ago the Moon was home to a race of werewolves. When the Moon lost its atmosphere, the werewolves went into a state of suspended animation, waiting for more hospitable times. Volcanic eruptions have now sent some of these werewolves to Earth, where they are reborn and go on a killing rampage. Anyone bitten or scratched by one becomes a werewolf, also. The creatures kill and eat everyone they come across, leaving only a carefully arranged pile of bones behind.

Blake begins a long journey, accompanied by other stragglers he meets, to a distant military base. There, it is hoped, a solution lies that may keep mankind from being exterminated by the lunar invaders.

I’ve also been a sucker for a mixture of science fiction and horror, so I enjoyed the book a lot. There are a number of scientific inaccuracies that could be nitpicked, but to John’s surprise, I won’t. This is a very entertaining, quick-read of a book. If you’ve never read Moonbane, here’s your chance, and if you read and enjoyed it, this is an opportunity to own a hard-bound copy of a minor horror classic.
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Sleepwalkers

What synchronicity. I read a novel by Mick Garris, and coincidentally (I swear) watch one of his first movies, Sleepwalkers. This could be a joyous confluence of events if the novel and movie were great ones. It falls a bit short.

The movie was scripted by Stephen King, based on one of his unpublished stories. To paraphrase Stephen Jones, unpublished with good reason. It’s one of his weakest efforts, without a doubt.

Mary (Alice Krige) and Charles (Brian Krause) are a mother and son pair of …..something. I suppose their supposed to be the titular Sleepwalkers of the film, although they are never described as such except in the opening titles, and there is no reason they would referred to as such. The opening states they are the origin of the vampire myth, but they seem closer to werewolves, since they turn into cat-like creatures at will, which seems to be their natural state. (Their true form is also revealed by mirrors, which makes me wonder why they keep mirrors all over their house. Their human appearance is an illusion, so they don’t need them. Dumb sleepwalkers.) Apparently, they live only by sucking out the soul/life force of a virgin girl. Only the son can do this, and he has to then feed Mom. (How did she get by before procreation?) The sleepwalkers can also make themselves and other things invisible, and can instantly change the make, model, and color of automobiles.

There is a slight overtone of incest in Mary and Charles’ relationship. By “slight overtone” I mean they graphically bang each others brains out every chance they get. I suppose that may go beyond “slight overtone.” This is a little out-there. Alice Krige is a definite babe, but I don’t think I’d go for her if she was my Mom.

The sleepwalkers have one Achilles’ Heel. Cats hate their guts, and the scratch of a cat burns them like acid and kills them. Cats are also attracted to them, as is evidenced by a lot of scenes of cats sitting around looking at their house. The cats actually look bored, but hell, they’re cats. Despite setting multiple traps, eventually there’s too much painful cat buildup, and the pair have to relocate.

Charles is going to high school and he focuses in on Tanya (Madchen Amick), a suitable virgin for eating. Unfortunately for him, she is Final Girl, and will be his undoing. Well, Final Girl and some cats. Charles does in a predatory gay schoolteacher (perpetuating a painful and inaccurate stereotype) and a cop. The cop, who acts at least slightly retarded, travels with a cat named Clovis who proves to be Charles’ undoing.

There are a number of cameos, but unfortunately the appearances of Stephen King, John Landis, Clive Barker, Tobe Hooper and Joe Dante are crammed into the same scene. If they were spread out, it would give the viewer something to watch for. There is also a brief appearance by Ron Perlman, always welcome.

The biggest flaw of the movie, other than the terribly stupid plot, is the (non)acting of Brian Krause. He’s the kind of actor that, when the director says “act naturally” stiffens like a board. Good looking guy, I suppose.

Garris would get better, and everything Stephen King ever wrote was better, so the future was rosier. Still, this is a movie only for Stephen King fanatics. And incest lovers.
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