Tonight I had the opportunity to get a sneak peak at the movie "Skinwalkers;" a new film by creature effects guy James Issasc's. He is probably best known for his work on "The Fly" and "Enemy Mine." I had heard about this film a few months back when I had the pleasure of attending a screening of "Alien" at the wonderful Arclight in Hhe creature effects were supposedly a twist on the usual werewolf film. So when a ticket for this film passed my way, I jumped at the chance.
The story (which I was in the dark about before) is about a 12 year old boy caught in the crossfire between two warring werewolf clans. One consists of werewolves happy to feed on humans, while the other camp believes they're cursed and are trying to find a way to become fully human again. They look to a 12 year old boy, who was prophesized (never made totally clear by who) to have something within him that would cure them of their terrible burden. But the catch is he has to live until his 13th birthday, and while that seems simple enough the werewolves who want to remain that way don't want to see that happen. Three days prior to his 13th birthday, the moon turns red, signaling that the prophecy is going to come true. So the whole movie is basically this race to keep him alive to break the curse.
Stating it simply the movie unfortunately is not very good. I've seen the standard werewolf films, like "The Howling" and "A Werewolf in London." Both of which I thought were great for different reasons I won't get into here. Then I've seen ones I really didn't like
ehem
"Cursed." So I was hoping for a lot here knowing that Stan Winston was involved. The problem with this film is it has trouble finding itself. You don't know if this is supposed to be serious, or one big joke. Parts that are not meant to be funny are funny because they're so absurd, and then parts that are meant to be lighthearted leave you confused and wondering if you just missed a laugh.
The acting was very mixed across the board, but no one hit any major high notes with me. I had a hard time seeing Jason Behr, who plays the leader of the "we love to be werewolves gang," as being very villainous. Elias Koteas, who leads to good guys, was fine in the role but his performance was just bland and didn't stand out much. Then you have Rhona Mitra, who I loved on "Boston Legal" and on "Nip/Tuck." She was perfectly fine, if anything I thought she was too good for some of the annoyingly badly written lines she was uttering. The child actor was just that, a child actor, 'nough said.
I was hoping that the creature effects if anything would be the highlight, but even those left something to be desired. I was looking forward to a great transformation scene, something akin to "A Werewolf in London." So I waited
and waited
and was left empty handed. The transformed werewolves did look somewhat different then ones I'm more accustomed to. As opposed to simply being big dogs, these were more human in appearance. Imagine Michael at the end of "Underworld" but much harrier, and there you go. The female werewolves were probably the most different then anything I'd seen before. Usually you can't tell a female werewolf from a male one. But these kept a more feminine figure when they transformed, and their faces became more elongated then the males. Point being, it was very easy to distinguish.
Even though I didn't have high hopes for this film, I was still hoping the creature effects would save it. But they weren't enough to carry this film to the end, and had I paid for it I would have felt cheated out of $10. There wasn't anything that distinguished this film from any others similar to it that I've seen. So my recommendation when this film hits a theater near you is rent "A Werewolf in London" and be thankful for it.
