Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for Marvel's Special Presentation, Werewolf by Night. If you do not wish to be spoiled, please feel free to go ahead and leave the page. This review (of sorts) will still be here once you've watched the show, patiently waiting for your return.
Edit (12 Jan 2023): Leave it to my ADHD arse to post a Review (of sorts) that doesn't actually have, you know... the review. Yep. Good job, Ryn. Anywho, the entry has been updated!
Yeah, I should have done this back in October (when I first watched it), I know, but oh, well. C'est la vie and whatnot. Better late than never, right?
As with a lot of comic book projects that hit the screen, I haven't read any of the Werewolf by Night comics (yet). In all honesty, I only actually knew it existed in the first place because Moon Knight debuted in one of its issues. As such, I have no idea how much this sticks with the source material, but to be fair, I don't actually care. Werewolf by Night has the honor of being the MCU's first 'Special Presentation', and for a film that runs less than an hour, I absolutely love it!
I'd talk about how the presentation pays homage to the horror classics of old, but not being much interested in the horror classics of old there's not much of a point, really. However, whether it is because of or despite this fact, one really shouldn't come into Werewolf by Night and expect to take it seriously. It certainly doesn't do that of itself, what between a speech given by a taxidermied dead guy and flaming tubas, it borders on comedy, albeit of the macabre variety.
The entire plot is one big cliché wrapped in campy goodness. Monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone has croaked, and his somewhat crazy cultist of a widow, Verussa Bloodstone (Harriet Sansom Harris), is overseeing a tournament to win a powerful magical artefact, called (you guessed it) the Bloodstone, and the right to take over the Bloodstone dynasty. A handful of hunters have been selected to take place in this tournament, including our joyful little unassuming hero, Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal), and a late entry to the group, Ulysses' own estranged daughter, Elsa (Laura Donnelly). Jack, for the record, is mentioned as having the highest kill count of the lot.
The game is thus: a monster, the likes of which the hunters gathered have never seen, apparently, has been captured and the Bloodstone tied to its body (which weakens it). The goal is to be the first hunter to kill the monster and get the stone using only weapons strewn about the conveniently placed monster hunting maze at the back of the property. Seriously.
As it turns out, the monster in question is Man-Thing! Also known as Ted, he's gotten himself in quite the pickle, what with having gotten captured by a cult of monster hunters, and Jack is actually there to rescue him. (The special doesn't go into how the Bloodstone clan captured Ted, but headcanon says it involved a windowless van and a box of kittens.) Lucky for Jack, it also so happens that Elsa isn't interested in offing the monster, either. She just wants the stone so she can take her place as the head of the dynasty. The pair strike a deal: Elsa helps Jack rescue Ted, Jack makes sure Elsa gets the Bloodstone. Win-win, right?
They get caught helping Ted escape, because of course they do, but we have the added twist that the Bloodstone reacted very tetchily to Jack trying to pick it up. This doesn't look overly good for Elsa, either, as her evil stepmother already doesn't like her, and now she's been caught helping a monster save another monster? For shame. So what does the kind and compassionate Verussa Bloodstone do? She tosses the pair of them into a cage together with the intention of using the Bloodstone to force Jack into his monster form and let him maim/maul/tear limb from limb/maybe eat Elsa to death.
Nice family. You could cut the love with a knife, yeh?
Anywho, it's called Werewolf by Night for a reason, which Verussa and her remaining hunters soon learn. Ted shows back up looking for Jack, who has run off after mauling the zealots to death, and Elsa gets her pretty rock. Huzzah for happy endings!
Not gonna lie, it isn't the plot that gets me with this show, it's the characters of Jack and Ted. Mostly Jack. He's got major babygirl energy, a walking force of nightmarish terror that you just wanna cuddle into a blanket and give hot chocolate until he falls asleep. (I'm not entirely sure this is how 'babygirl' is supposed to be interpreted, but it's how it translates in my head here, so... meh.) He and Ted have a wonderful broship, too. Despite not actually seeing the two of them interact a whole lot on screen, the portrayal of their relationship was well done enough that what they mean to each other just shines through.
We need more Jack and Ted, but I don't think we're getting more Jack and Ted, and that makes me sad. Here's to hoping I'm wrong, though!
The acting in this thing, mainly and especially with our monster hunting cultists, is a bit over the top, but that's okay. It matches very well with the campy fun of the overall project. Gael García Bernal does a phenomenal job himself, giving quite a bit of depth to a character that we only get to spend less than an hour with. (No, not even a whole hour! The runtime is a whopping 53 minutes...) His portrayal makes it really easy to connect with Jack (important for a main protagonist, no da).
The score is done by Michael Giacchino, so of course it is amazing. Giacchino also directed the thing, and while I don't really care for some of the shots (personal preference, though, not because they were bad or anything), I think he did a pretty damn good job with that bit, too. One of my favourite scenes was Jack working through the guards in the hallway after his forced transformation, but I also don't much care for it, either, and I don't actually know how that works, but okay.
Not gonna lie, I hate the werewolf form of Jack. I get that it's a homage to the classics or some such (from sommat I read, anyway), but I personally prefer my werewolves to look more wolfish and not like a guy wearing a costume from Spirit Halloween. The werewolf costuming is my only major gripe with the show, though.
Overall, it is a fun little romp of dark humour and cheesy camp. I give an 8/10 (but Jack gets, like, a 15/10, so there's that).
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