On a southern island
called Marsh Island, a county sheriff
named Aaron Whittaker (David Janssen)
discovers that a woman named Ellie has
been torn to shreds by what seems to be a
pack of wild dogs.
However, a medical examiner named Dr.
Druten (John Buradino), whom he got her
impregnated and also discovered that
whatever attacked her weren't dogs who
attacked her and she was murdered.
Then her family gets suspicious and
Ellie's brother named Tom Gurmunty Jr.
(John Davis Chandler) thinks that Druten
murdered her but Tom gets slayed himself
and the sheriff realises that there's
something more terrifying out there
although Tom still tries to unravel these
terrible murders thinking there may be a
killer on the loose.
However, he may have to face up to a
werewolf.
Watching this made
for TV horror flick seemed to be a bit of
a mystery cop type drama with all that's
going on that involves a dead body with
some redneck locals talking about
something more ferocious than your
typical wild animal doing this in which
this looks impressive to a start on a
werewolf film. However, there are many
dull dialogues with the local sheriff
talking to some of the locals to look for
some missing clues in which this reminds
you of watching one of those boring TV
cop shows during this time period.
However you spot a nice lake area and
forestry as well as a full moon too. It
totally looked very southern like which
this flick was shot in Luisianna. It
looked too peaceful though but again
sometimes that can be a good setting
until the terror starts.
Yet we spot a nice beginning with a corpse exposed
around a bunch of sheriff's and locals. There's a great
anxious moment with Lawrence Burrifors trying to leap out to see this corpse
getting upset and Sheriff Aaron
Whittaker holding
him back which looked totally energised.
There's a good moment with Aaron talking to Lawrence about what had
happened at his home near a lake which
showed a good setting as well as testing
his self defense too.
There's a good camera shot on Tom Gurmandey Sr. and
Aaron acting sick and paranoid in bed
talking about strange things of the
werewolf situations almost not making any
sense which looked impressive.
There's a shot on Lawrence punching Dr. Druten which looked a bit
fake but again in that time it seemed not
too badly done for a TV movie.
There's a great dark camera shot quickly
closing in on a deputy in a police
headquarters with a shot on him screaming
which seemed a bit low on energy.
There's a good shot closing in on Lawrence with him pinned against the wall of a
jail cell screaming for his life with
freaked out expressions which looked
quite good.
There's a good shot on Andrew Rodanthe breaking down which looked
pretty good on the camera takes but yet
could've been a little more realisitic
looking in which this moment slightly
lacked a bit.
There's another good shot on his arm growing hairy as well as him
jumping on Druten fully
hairy which looked quite impressive and the filmmakers certainly made this setting look very old
fashioned like with the surroundings.
There's
a nice camera shot closing in on a nurse
along with a great fearful wide eyed
expressions on her.
There's a good moment with Louise Rodanthe looking up and then having a
concerned expression on her face when she
notices someone approaching.
A nice shot from a distance
looking down on Andrew breaking
through a door with both Aaron and Louise finding a way
to escape from him.
Great shot on Louise sitting in a chair holding a gun with a
shot on the door being torn open and her
getting emotional.
There's a nice shot on Andrew lying on the floor lifeless looking like
his full self.
Bottom line is that the terror doesn't really start until
halfway through with a mysterious
werewolf attacking a sheriff's office in
which this looked cheesy but still
entertaining.
Then is does get a bit dark near close to
when the film is about to end with the
sheriff and a wife of her husband who has
just become a werewolf and trying to
struggle in order to save themselves from
him terrorising a mansion they're in. But
yet it doesn't seem very scary at all. The film is a bit of a
bore but yet the werewolf effects look
too old fashioned which is fun and the scene's
were designed to make this picture almost
like a tribute to those old fahioned
werewolf flicks such as Lon Chaney's The Wolf Man in which
that one is far better. If you're in the
mood for an average non scary mysterious
werewolf flick then by all means watch
this film but it's no award winning
material by any means.
The acting is good
for a TV movie but would be considered
average if this was a motion picture. Lead actor David Janssen (Sheriff Aaron
Whittaker) does
well as the head sheriff Aaron Whittaker
and delivers his lines clearly too. He
had a great no BS attitude and his
speaking was quite gruff which really
suited the role that he portrayed. He
showed alot of spunk in his part of the
film. Plus had the nice masculine looks
to top it all off.
The main cast member that stands out is Barbara
Rush (Louise Rodanthe) with her unusual behavior and
does well when she gets frightened by the
shocking truth of what is going on. She
also knew on how to act calm for the
scene's that were necessary too. Also does a good job getting emotional too in a certain scene. To top
it off she portrayed a nice wholesome
type of image.
Bradford
Dillman (Andrew Rodanthe) had a nice charm
to his role as one of those guy next door
types. He really brought on a great
outgoing type of behavior to what he did
and had the good clean cut looks. He was
perfect as a victim to a werewolf
becoming one himself and knew on how to
act menacing when he changes.
Supporting actor Geoffrey Lewis (Lawrence Burrifors) also
stands out quite well as a redneck
determined to seek revenge on who killed
his sister as his emotions were very
good. He really knew on how to act high
strung when there were upsetting moments.
He was very energetic.
Royal
Dano (Tom Gurmandey Sr.) was a perfect key role in the
film as a sick man dying and really
brought out some craziness into his
character. He was very believeable by
portraying this type of role in which
makes you wonder if he is really like
that.
Claudia McNeil (Sara) knew her stuff as a
housekeeper to this backwoods family and
brought a good strong and serious
attitude to what's going on and also knew
on how to behave very firm with the
incident of an animal out on the loose. There's a nice
stern behavior with her on
telling her fellow actor about something
unanimal like that's happening and
getting downright serious with him. She was a totally worthy character
actress and can be well remembered for
her part in this film.
Some bloody
clawing but hey this is a TV movie so the
gore is rated G.
We have the good old
classical violin playing composed by the
late Bernardo Segall along with
piano playing and other interesting music
too including some suspenseful clarinet
playing and some heavy drum beats too. He
does well with all of this. It sounds
alot like those 70's cop type mystery
flicks. |