Judging by the cover of this film thoughts of 'Van Helsing' and 'Underworld' spring instantly to mind...and your not far wrong with that.
This is pretty much a copy and mix of both of those films, chock full of lovely clichéd characters and everything you've ever seen before in a werewolf movie.
Bunch of crazy hardass werewolf hunters come to a small village to purge them of the wolf horror. A young man from the village volunteers to help them do so but there are twists to come, many predictable twists that aren't too well hidden.
The film looks quite good with that typically bleak, dark, murky, 19th century, forest set, Eastern European village look. The characters are basically rips from many other films and include your obligatory Hudson from 'Aliens' type, the cool calm Clint Eastwood-esque leader, the sexy ninja like female and a well spoken, smartly dressed toff who throws lots of little knives. A kind of quirky 'League of Extraordinary Gentleman' type looking gang. The dialog is all the right kind of hero spouting fluff you have heard before, tight little one liners throughout the action just to emphasise these guys are cool and tough etc..
The reason I watched the film (apart from being a werewolf fan) was down to the reasonable looking effects. It swings from good to bad really, some shots of the werewolf's claws, eyes or silhouettes against the darkness are pretty neat and work well. The transformation sequences are fully CGI and a bit hokey but I've seen worse, whilst in full CGI motion the creature doesn't look that bad. Put it this way its no worse than the first 'Underworld' flick which had a much bigger budget.
Unknown cast accept for previous vampire player Stephen Rea, none of which are much to shout about although Guy Wilson who plays the young man from the village looks perfect for his character. Honestly for a straight to DVD film this isn't too bad and offers some nice visuals and claret soaked action, just don't expect anything original at tall.
5/10
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