Night of the Wolf

An ornery, blind army veteran moves into a retirement community, where he finds himself under attack during the full moon. He has one month to prepare his defences for the next phase.

What an odd movie. It has a touch of Coen brothers, some Witches Of Eastwick, and a dash of AWILondon. The lead is played brilliantly, with all that gruff dialogue, and many scenes have a powerful whiff of intra-communal paranoia. It really feels like a sophisticated satire on American values, with lots of wry digs at police, army, church and self-imposed isolation. But in the last act it goes fully literal and loses its touch, with no real reflection on what went before.

Sadly the creatures present as extras in furry costumes, but there is a bit of decent gore - although ultimately nothing is scary. I guess the director has to be blamed for the rushed feel of the final showdown.

The music is a bit generic, but effective in setting the mood.

Overall - great lead performance, but an odd mixture that doesn't carry through.

A blind veteran moves to a small community for elders, where he is attacked by an animal one night. Realizing that he has been attacked by a werewolf, he spends his time preparing for the next full moon.

It seemed to be yet another low budget crap werewolf movie. And yes, the werewolves to look like guys wearing cheap Halloween costumes, but the movie in itself is not that bad. The acting is good, the story of the grumpy, blind old veteran preparing for the next werewolf attack is actually more interesting than the attacks themselves.

The fact that most of the characters are elderly is quite refreshing, and they manage to set a mood that kept me watching, not for the werewolves, but because I actually cared about what happened to the protagonist.

Late Phases reminded me a lot of Silver Bullet (the movie adapted from Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf) but with a blind, elderly Vietnam veteran instead of a paraplegic boy as the protagonist. As much as I have always loved Silver Bullet, I have to admit that I enjoyed this movie about as much, and it doesn't feel dated the way that Silver Bullet does when watching it again. It seems fitting that the special effects were handled by the same man who did special effects work on Bubba Ho-Tep, since there are some parallels between this story and that one, except that this one doesn't take place in a retirement facility, rather it takes place in a neighborhood of retirees. I've seen better werewolf creature effects (the creature appears to be a little bit more like a wererabbit because of a strangely short snout combined with the long, pointed ears), but I have seen much, much worse than these. It's not the caliber of the Howling or the old Werewolf television series, but it beats the hell out of the shiny/glossy, god awful creature effects from the Underworld movies and so many others. The transformation process itself, that you don't get to witness until near the end, is actually pretty impressive compared to a lot of them I've seen. The story is captivating for the most part, though it does drop a few steps during the investigative portion of the narrative while the protagonist figures things out and prepares for the next full moon to arrive. The climax of the movie makes up for it though, and then some...and even that slower patch between the full moons isn't the sort of thing that can be skipped over, in part because there is a bit of a twist relating directly to the investigation the protagonist conducts. I felt like now was as good a time as any to watch this particular movie because I am in the process of writing a werewolf story of my own, and it seemed like a good idea to watch some things for additional inspiration...and this one definitely served that purpose well. I wish that the werewolf wasn't such an underrepresented monster in both movies and literature...but it seems like all anyone has time for are zombies and vampires, and that is a damn shame. I would love to see more movies like this.

I say surprisingly entertaining, because at first I thought this was going to be campy. I am happy to have been wrong. This was a very enjoyable Werewolf film.

A full cast of recognizable faces, some I was shocked to see again. A couple I had to look up, because I knew them, but I couldn't remember from where, and then it was a cool "Oh YEAH" discovery.

This is a movie that I wish would've had a bigger budget, as the effects could've used some more attention, BUT, too much budget would've sent this to CGI, and that would be bad. Robert Kurtzman and company did a really good job with the make up and creatures, but the story was so good, I would've liked a little more.

And about the story, VERY cool original idea, this kept me watching from beginning to end, with a smile on my face. I've seen so many films in this genre that I am very jaded, and very biased, but this one, this one was fun. Good Job to all involved!!

This movie turned out surprisingly well!

I had seen the title around in the past and never paid much attention. I mean really? A blind older vet against a werewolf?? .... How ridiculous is that whole idea? Well.... Not only was I wrong, I was pleasantly surprised by just how wrong I was.

This was one of the most enjoyable werewolf movies I have seen in a while! I absolutely love the dry, serious personality of the main character. He doesn't talk much and is direct and to the point about things. I love how those gossipy neighbors annoyed him as much as they did me! The acting was on point, all characters believable.

The special effects were not the best but they were good enough! I will take the not so perfect make-up/body suit type of effects over mediocre CGI any and every time! Definitely the right call there. I wish more movies still handled things that way more often. Bad CGI will cheapen any movie.

The story line was really good, and definitely different from any newer werewolf movie I have seen in quite a while. Retirement werewolves, not something you see.... Like.... Ever! Lol. The whole thing was refreshing. It was also extremely refreshing to see a modern werewolf movie actually respect and follow the traditional lore in a traditional way without making a joke out of it or turning the werewolves into actual wolves. Werewolves are not wolves and should be kept that way.

However I will say one thing for anyone already thinking it, because ik that they are. In Twilight, which is the most used reference in the past decade it seems.... They were NOT werewolves. The movies never clairified any of that and completely butchered the books which were actually quite good (yes I read them, long before the movies were even a thing and still have them) unlike the movies. In the last book towards the end the whole wolf thing is actually explained and acknowledged that they were not werewolves but were indeed a race of shapesifters. No more, no less. Completely different species.

All in all I definitely recommend this movie to anyone that still loves and appreciates traditional lore.