Wolves – Toronto After Dark 2014

Cayden Richards (Lucas Till) is a high school football star, who discovers the hard way that he is a werewolf.  Going on the run, after his parents are found murdered, Cayden meets a stranger named Wild Joe (John Pyper-Ferguson), who tells Cayden about a town called Lupine Ridge, which happens to be populated entirely by werewolves.  Cayden begins working as a farmhand for John Tollerman (Stephen McHattie), who is the leader of the peaceful town wolves, who have a shaky truce with the wild wolves in the hills lead by the psychotic Connor (Jason Momoa). With Cayden discovering he’s part of one of the last purebred werewolf lines, Cayden prepares to protect the town, and the beautiful bartender Angelina Timmins (Merritt Patterson), from Connor and his men. It is very easy to look at Wolves, the directorial debut of X-Men and Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter, and think that it is “Twilight with werewolves.” In some some ways, that evaluation is correct, especially when it comes to the budding romance between the pretty leads Cayden and Angelina, which includes a scene of running through fields and trees.  However, the film is more of a coming-of-age story, with some bloody action thrown into it. For a film called Wolves, it is a bit disappointing that the characters remain in human form for much of the film.  That said, the film does have a pretty enjoyable and violent full-out werewolf battle in the final act.  I also have to say that both Stephen McHattie and Jason Momoa were great as the leaders of the opposing werewolf packs and the film shined when either of them were on screen.  While Wolves is probably not as gritty as it could have been, it is still a fine enough werewolf film for mainstream consumption. 7 | FAIR  Read my interview with Wolves director David Hayter.