Frank Grillo is back in the horror genre with a twist on a classic monster in Werewolves. First having gotten in the works under the title Year 2, the movie is set in a world in which, a year prior, a supermoon turned millions into the titular creatures, with the impending return of the lunar event seeing society attempting to prepare for the potential of another major outbreak. Alongside Grillo, the ensemble Werewolves cast includes NCIS‘ Katrina Law, Godfather of Harlem‘s Ilfenesh Hadera, James Michael Cummings and Golden Globe nominee Lou Diamond Phillips.
A little over two years after filming first began on the film, Briarcliff Entertainment has released the first Werewolves trailer. The video opens up by setting up the movie’s world of supermoon-turned-humans, with a woman finding her home has been broken into by the titular creatures. It then cuts to introducing Grillo’s Wesley Marshall, who is shown preparing his house with a variety of traps and security systems in the hopes of keeping his family safe from any werewolves that may attack, while also being frustrated with his neighbor’s dangerous means of training for the night.
The trailer then shifts to Phillips’ Dr. Aranda and a group of scientists conducting an experiment in the hopes of determining why humans transform from the supermoon, and how to reverse it. This, ultimately, backfires when test subjects are exposed to the supermoon, leading to their transformations and breaking out into the world. The rest of the Werewolves trailer, which can be seen below, is an action-packed montage of Grillo and other characters fighting for their survival against the eponymous monsters:
The Werewolves trailer shows director Steven C. Miller, best known for helming the Silent Night remake, and Canary Black scribe Matthew Kennedy bringing an action-focused approach to the horror subgenre of the eponymous creatures. It’s certainly not the first time the werewolf formula has seen this kind of fast-paced take on it, with the Kate Beckinsale-led Underworld franchise one of the more notable examples, as well as Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers and Skinwalkers, among others. It is the first in a long while, though, and also comes as Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man reboot looks to bring a direct horror tone.
With the movie’s mix of action and horror, Werewolves interestingly looks to see Grillo aiming to repeat the success of his prior mix of genres with The Purge series. Starting as a home invasion thriller with its debut outing, James DeMonaco’s franchise has since expanded into a broader mix of action and dystopian horror-thriller, with Grillo having led the cast of two of its five installments. Considering those two are generally considered to be the best in the Purge franchise, Grillo’s return to a similar genre-blending formula in Werewolves is sure to attract the attention of that series’ fans.
Considering it’s been a long while since the Purge franchise was on screens, and the werewolf subgenre got a refreshing take on the formula, the Werewolves trailer really does hold a lot of promise. The movie has spent two years in post-production, which would typically indicate a lot of CGI, but the trailer also shows that Miller is going for a largely practical approach, something that delights me more than the alternative, a decision Marvel’s Werewolf by Night made and executed wonderfully. With Grillo also leading the charge with his gruff action persona, I think Werewolves could really be a delight for genre fans.
