Late Phases (2014) Review

Tagline: When Darkness Falls, Evil Will Rise.

Late Phases (2014) Review

 

Happy Halloween!

If you’ve ever wondered what it would have been like had an elderly John Wick been attacked by a werewolf instead of gangsters, then the movie Late Phases is for you. Even more accurately, it’s like if the blind man from Don’t Breathe was a good guy, but just like the criminals who break into his house in that film, this werewolf has no idea it picked on the wrong Vietnam vet and his dog.

Ambrose McKinley is being helped by his son to move into a remote retirement community as the film opens, and they have a difficult relationship. His new neighbour Dolores is friendly, and he is bringing with him his guide dog, Shadow, but immediately, something about the place seems…off. As Ambrose enters his side of the duplex for the first time, he feels scratch marks on the wall and pulls a claw tip out of them. Only twelve minutes into the movie, we see the werewolf for the first time, and I love that no time is wasted in getting to the good stuff. It passes outside a window in a pretty creepy shot, and next thing you know, it’s massacring Ambrose’s neighbour. It doesn’t take him long after this horrific full moon night to begin piecing together the ongoing mystery of what has been killing retirees in the area, and he immediately begins preparing for the next full moon so he can put an end to the curse.

If you’re familiar with John Wick, you’ll be able to guess what motivates Ambrose, but what you won’t be able to guess as easily is the werewolf’s identity. It’s frustrating when the mystery aspect becomes the focus of the story but is too obvious or has an unsatisfying reveal. Fortunately, it’s a compelling investigation by Ambrose as he gets to know the people in the community and tries to narrow down the suspects. At one point it seems like it might be a man confined to an iron lung, but then it seems like the movie might go the Silver Bullet route and make the priest a werewolf. Is it the priest? I won’t spoil the truth, because even beyond the reveal, there’s an additional twist which spices up the finale and brings the story to a proper, satisfying conclusion.

Late Phases is a werewolf movie to be taken seriously, yet it rides the line of schlock and genuine unease, which somehow coalesces into a pretty entertaining tale that’s decidedly different from most, despite having some werewolf clichés throughout. We get Ambrose eventually seeking out silver bullets, and we see the person who is the original werewolf undergo a transformation, but what sets this one apart from the pack is the protagonist and his drive to defeat evil. Ambrose McKinley is an utterly unflappable character; after the initial werewolf attack, he starts using a walking stick, but instead of a regular white cane, he uses an entrenching tool—not just a normal shovel, a military-grade one with a blade at the end that can double as a weapon, presumably from his days in ‘Nam—and it’s both badass and humorous. If the character of Ambrose hadn’t worked, the whole movie would have been a disaster, but Nick Damici absolutely nails the role. He’s gruff, to the point, hardened from his past, and you believe he’s really blind (Damici isn't in real life), but he’s still someone you root for. He’s also quite funny even when he doesn’t intend to be, like when he’s perusing tombstones to buy. There’s some great dialogue throughout, and the way the werewolf stuff threads into the themes of aging and redemption doesn’t come off as too heavy handed or overtly comedic.

The supporting cast is sufficient, with the only other standout for me being Tom Noonan as the priest (who may or may not also be a werewolf). With the violent setup taken care of in the first 20 minutes, the bulk of the story is Ambrose patiently waiting for the next full moon, and even though it makes the wait for the return of the werewolf quite long, I didn’t find myself bored or wanting to skip ahead, but the building of suspense does make it feel like it should be working toward an inevitable showdown between Ambrose and the werewolf, and to the film’s credit, it delivers the goods in the last 20 minutes, not skimping out on action or carnage. The werewolf isn’t seen much when it first attacks, but it becomes apparent on the second full moon that the design for this creature is a little unconventional, and the effects are a bit inconsistent. The aforementioned transformation can’t hold a candle to An American Werewolf in London, but it’s pretty creative and frightening in its own way, and the creature looks cool in certain shots, but it looks like a costume at times, too, and the face is not frightening.

Even though they didn’t quite get the monster right in terms of appearance, I appreciate that the filmmakers went for something different instead of a generic look, and I’ll give particular praise to the commitment to the old school lore. American Werewolf, for as great as it is, turns its back on pentagrams appearing in people’s palms and the need for silver bullets to slay the beast, but the one gripe I’ve always had with it is the fudging of the lunar cycle. David turns into a werewolf the night after the full moon as well, but in Late Phases, the werewolf only comes out strictly once a month. It’s a trade-off: the film gets bookended by werewolfery and lacks any in the middle, but it also made me buy into the clear structure for the story’s beginning, middle, and ending without feeling like the writer needed to bend the rules just to make it more interesting.

Late Phases is a pretty unique werewolf film which I would recommend most strongly to those who have seen many of them and are looking for one that’s a little different. I was in it for more than just the monster, and I appreciated the elevated schlock nature of its premise. It has its moments of gore, though isn’t especially scary, but solidly entertaining throughout, and perfect for those who appreciate low-budget fare that rises above any limitations to become something more. 

 

Late Phases, appropriately enough with that title, marks the final review in my Wolf-athon and the conclusion to this year’s third Shocktober Showcase! I’m already figuring out next year’s topic as you read these words, so be sure to check out Shocktober Showcase four in 2027, and until then, have a great Halloween weekend! 

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) Review

Tagline: “Welcome to Snow Hollow.”

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) Review

 

Werewolf films frequently end up treading a lot of the same territory. Obviously they are most often about the horror of the protagonist turning into a monster on a full moon, and the threat to others of being killed or turned into one, as well, but sometimes the concept is played up for comedy. When it’s not a comedy or tragedy, it’s often tied to the mystery genre. Who is the werewolf? If you’re tired of the same old schtick when it comes to werewolves, consider The Wolf of Snow Hollow, a film that proves there’s still plenty you can do with the classic creature to make it feel fresh and entertaining.

Jim Cummings plays John (he also wrote and directed this whole thing), a deputy sheriff with three big problems. 1) He’s an alcoholic, 2) he doesn’t get along with many people in the small town of Snow Hollow, Utah, and 3) he has to deal with the brutal murder of a young woman, which may have been by either a man or a wolf…or a wolfman? In just the same way Jim tells his police department, the movie tells us any rational person knows werewolves are imaginary, but some are not so convinced, especially when subsequent full moon murders take place. Jim has so many problems that he becomes distracted from other familial concerns, like the angst of his teenage daughter and the health of his father the sheriff, played by the late great Robert Forster in one of his last roles. Forster’s presence lends a bit more credibility to the cast, but is he the werewolf? It seems unlikely since there are multiple times when John has to literally hold him up just to keep him on his feet. John’s frequently unhinged behaviour makes you question early on if he is the werewolf, and the mystery becomes the focus of the plot, but unravels at a great pace and keeps you going right to the last scene.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow is not your typical werewolf movie, but I can’t say exactly why without spoiling a fun aspect of the story that isn’t apparent for most of the runtime. What it really comes down to in terms of entertainment value is whether or not you vibe with Jim Cummings and his brand of humour. I’d call the movie a horror-comedy-ish, leaning more toward the horror and mystery with injections of black comedy, dry humour, and deadpan delivery throughout. There’s some very crisp, creepy cinematography of the snowy, mountainous locales, and while you don’t see too much of the werewolf throughout, there are a few satisfactory glimpses of it in the midst of several brutal murders. Most of the violence is offscreen, likely because this was only a two-million-dollar production (very low budget by modern standards), but Cummings was clever in how he shot not only the horror scenes but also the mundane details, like John’s AA meetings, where we hardly see any of the other people he’s speaking to, but never question why.

Even though we don’t see much of the killings, the aftermath of each is pretty well documented, and there are simple, unsettling visuals placed throughout the runtime to stoke the flames of the mystery, but at no point does it ever get truly scary. Intentionally disorienting editing is used at a few points, which is fairly effective, but everything is shot pretty conservatively, without any real standout visual tricks or some of the usual werewolf eye candy. Don’t expect a transformation or even a closeup of the creature; the focus is squarely on the characters, but it works to the desired effect, and the humour comes primarily from how the protagonist deals with the disturbing case and the difficult people around him. Cummings delivers some great, exasperated lines throughout, which often leave other characters looking baffled.

I won’t say much else about The Wolf of Snow Hollow to preserve the mystery on which the foundation of this somewhat unconventional werewolf tale is built, but in terms of modern takes on one of cinema’s oldest movie monsters, I think this is one of the best, though only if you’re open to a tale that is simultaneously more grounded but also quite idiosyncratic by its very nature.  

Cursed (2005) Review

Tagline: “What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.”

Cursed (2005) Review

 

We’ve all heard about the werewolves of London, but are you familiar with the werewolves of Hollywood? The filmmaking team who brought us Ghostface in Scream reunited for their take on the werewolf subgenre: director Wes Craven, screenwriter Kevin Williamson, and even composer Marco Beltrami. It feels like Cursed was basically intended to do the same thing for werewolves that Scream did for slasher movies, bringing meta jokes and references and deconstructions of the cliches while also embracing them and becoming something fresh, new, and entertaining. Unfortunately, unlike Scream, the end result was not what anyone was hoping for, especially the filmmakers.

The opening credits for the makeup effects and cast are also reasons to take note. Rick Baker, Academy Award-winning makeup artist who did An American Werewolf in London, gets sole effects credit, and I can’t list all of the standout actors, but a few include Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg as siblings Ellie and Jimmy, Milo Ventimiglia as Jimmy’s high school bully, Bo, and Nick Offerman in an early bit part as a police officer. Portia de Rossi plays a small role as a fortune teller, which is a blatant reference to the gypsy from The Wolf Man, but many of the meta references are like sledgehammers for horror fans, because Lon Chaney Jr.’s Wolf Man is literally in this movie (as a wax statue, mind you, in a horror-themed display) and while that blatancy could be blamed on writer Kevin Williamson, his original script was completely overhauled throughout filming, so I don’t even know which, if any, of the ideas that made it to screen were his to begin with.

After a car crash and an attack by an unseen creature, Ellie and Jimmy begin to have strange feelings and experiences. Ellie is the skeptic, but Jimmy lays right into believing they have been turned into werewolves, and pointedly says they are “cursed” way too many times (Get it? That’s the title!). Who turned them into werewolves in the first place, though? It toys with some interesting ideas, but most of them had already been explored in far more effective ways in earlier films like The Howling and Ginger Snaps. Neither of them outright turns into a werewolf, but their dog, Zipper, does at one point later on, and he looks like Scooby Doo—as in the bad CGI version from 2002. Jimmy does undergo a change, though, from a nerd to an edgy, spiky-haired sexual magnet, and I refuse to believe Sam Raimi didn’t see this and take inspiration for emo Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3, because Eisenberg was channeling some of that same energy before Tobey Maguire ever did.  

I can imagine Cursed may have been a guilty youthful pleasure of mine in an alternate universe where I saw it in the late 2000s as the target demographic, but that’s not the reality of this review. When the movie first came out it was ripped to shreds by critics, and despite every effort from the producers, it was immediately obvious to audiences that something had gone wrong behind the scenes. For as many missteps as Cursed makes, it’s still mostly a goofy good time, but even on those terms, it has problems. The two main aspects I enjoyed the most were the cast and the werewolf moments. In addition to the actors I already mentioned, I like Joshua Jackson, and know him best from the TV series Fringe, but here he’s a bit sleepy as Ellie’s boyfriend, and it’s immediately obvious that he’s the werewolf, even though there’s some effort to make it a mystery. There’s another more surprising reveal later of another secret werewolf, though—so many werewolves! Despite their abundance, we don’t get to see them too often.

Rick Baker’s name was retained for the opening credits despite the werewolf design and effects that appear in the theatrical cut not being his work. KNB EFX group were brought in during reshoots to take care of the effects after Baker left, and I think the creature still looks decent, but most of the shots are quickly edited, and many of their effects were replaced with poor CGI. There’s a suitably entertaining sequence pretty early on of a werewolf hunting its prey in a parkade, where we finally get a good look at the lupine predator, but the death scene is cut short, which is disappointing. This is another unfortunate case of a film being shot with an R-rating in mind but getting cut down to PG-13. An “uncensored” version was released on DVD, but it didn’t reinstate much of the trimmed gore and violence. I watched it on streaming and I’m honestly not even sure which version it was, and don’t really care.

The setup for Cursed is decent, and most of the werewolf action is saved for the last half hour, but the rest of the time in between drags a bit, with few standout moments and some annoying character interactions. The early 2000s homophobic humour gets pedalled so hard it becomes so-bad-it’s-funny, and while there are a few clever twists on werewolf tropes, it doesn’t manage to elicit many laughs or scares in that middle stretch, whether it’s trying to be funny or scary. This movie is classified as a horror comedy, but it’s not really either. There are still many fun moments throughout, including the most well-known shot of a werewolf smashing through a window and flipping the bird to the main characters, which was supposedly improvised. It could also be viewed as the werewolf giving the finger to the audience for watching such a dumb movie, or better yet, fingering the crew behind the camera for the hell of a production they were all put through.

While the hope was to produce something as great as Scream (even the poster evokes the same vibe), Cursed is not ranked very high in Wes Craven’s filmography. I consider myself a Craven fan, and have seen most of his movies, but also recognize that the quality of his work was never really consistent throughout his career, but in the particular case of this film, I don’t think it was his fault. Imagine making basically a whole movie, and then being told to go back and film it all over again but with significant changes, and then having it taken away from you in the post-production phase and hacked up into something barely recognizable from what you originally shot. It’s no wonder Craven never spoke highly of the version that eventually made it into theatres a full two-and-a-half years after he started working on the project, which he admitted he took on because his pay was doubled after he first turned it down.

The behind-the-scenes story about Cursed is just as interesting as the actual film, if not even a little more so. I won’t divulge all the details, but what it came down to was the real predator on set, Harvey Weinstein, screwing up what could have been a much better film. I’m surprised Craven made Scream 4 for the Weinsteins after his terrible experience on Cursed. There have been calls for the release of the “Craven cut”, reinstating everything that was scrapped, and while I would love to see it, I’m skeptical it will ever be released.

Cursed lives up to its name only in terms of its actual production. The actual movie will work for some—maybe if you like the Scream sequels you will get more out of it—but it certainly wasn’t the redefining werewolf film it could have been. Still, it’s worth checking out for its trashy 2000s qualities and its little glimmers of greatness.