Werewolf Tales

Year: 2001

Director: Ron Ford, John Bowker, Joe Sherlock

Written by: Ron Ford, Belinda Alexandra, Kevin Lindenmuth

Threat: Werewolf

Weapon of Choice: Claws

Based upon: see Anthology Movies

IMDb page: IMDb link

      Werewolf Tales

Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
An anthology piece centered around--obviously--werewolves. It's low budget and sometimes feels like something Rish would have shot with his friends as a kid, but a couple of the underlying story ideas are interesting.
Story one is called "Bestiality" and concerns a bunch of mobsters, one of whom happens upon a tribal ring in an antique store while shaking the guy down for protection money. Well, you can imagine what happens when one of the tribe shows up to claim it.
This one featured what were likely the best special effects of the group, but it is also the reason for the Bad Acting and Bad Dialogue skulls. The story is sort of interesting but poorly performed and really, just left me wondering what it could have been.
Story two is called "Dark Bite" and relates a few incidents of one man's crumbling travels into the realm of insanity. A loser type guy wants power and wants revenge on those who've disparaged him. He comes upon a book, "The Book of the Beast," and tries to use it to become a werewolf so that he may gut a particular girl who has treated him poorly.
This was perhaps the most interestingly filmed of the stories and managed to actually maintain a modicum of suspense through to the end. There is a twist ending that is interesting and revealing that I thought was really quite well done. This one doesn't rely on effects quite so much and so the cheap production doesn't harm your enjoyment quite so much.
Last was a story called "No Place to Hyde." Of all the stories filmed, this one had the most potential to be very interesting and could very likely have been made into a film by itself with a little more imagination. Based loosely on the events from Stevenson's classic novella "Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde," this is the least directly werewolf story, but the connection is very apparent when you see the beast he becomes. Of them all this one is the one that I would perhaps recommend if just because I like the direction the story took. A little effort and this could be a great production.
If you can find this one and don't mind the cheapness of the production, then you may want to check it out. Werewolf enthusiasts will find a couple of good ideas in here, and perhaps even a new take on things. I would also recommend it to fans of "Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde." There really isn't enough cinema based around that particular idea.

Rish's Reviews
I love werewolves. Always have. Until I am killed by one, I think I'll always love them. This had three tales involving my favourite movie beasties, all unusual because they didn't rely on the traditional guy-gets-bitten or family curse werewolf stories. Also interesting is that the three stories were made independent from one another, with different casts and crews. It was nice because you saw different styles and paces (and different levels of quality, I suppose).
The first story, though the silliest and least-believable, was the most fun, with lots of swearing and funny dialogue and cheap but effective gore. Tyranist was right, the acting was worse-than-horrible, but ah well. The second story dragged far too much (perhaps they used every bit of footage shot, like I used to do in those terrible childhood movies tyranist referred to above), but had very nice acting by its lead. The third story, like the man said, had the most potential, and felt rushed. The makeup shown at the end of the third story was quite excellent, though. And I like these no-budget indy projects, because it makes me feel like tomorrow's Carpenters or Romeros or Cravens are out there, on their way. And that maybe I could be one of them.

Total Skulls: 12

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting skull
Bad dialogue skull
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer skull
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse skull
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision skullskull
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later skull
Flashback sequence skull
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading skull
Blood fountain skull
Blood hits camera
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell? skull