Wolves (2014)

Dir: David Hayter

High school student Cayden (Lucas Till STOKER) is living the good life. He's a good student. Quarter back. Has a hot girlfriend. Trouble is that after viciously attacking a player on the rival team during the big game and discovering his parents brutally murdered at home, Cayden realises he's a werewolf with little control over when he transforms. Wanted for the murder of his parents, Cayden hits the road.

In a dive bar, Cayden meets up with fellow werewolf Wild Joe (John Pyper-Ferguson DIE). Wild Joe lives up to his name and as he heads into the darkness of the night, tells Cayden about a town of werewolves called Lupine Ridge.

Off to Lupine Ridge he goes. Meetings his soul mate Angel (Merritt Patterson THE HOLE) tending bar and being taken under the wing by a kindly farmer (Stephen McHattie PONTY POOL) and taught the ways of the wolf, life is looking better. But trouble seems to find Cayden wherever he goes. A rival group of werewolves, led by Connor (Jason Momoa CONAN THE BARBARIAN), lives in the woods outside town but lords over the townsfolk. It's a clash between the pure werewolves and the not-so-pure. Those that embrace their wolf side and those that remain human. That's right, all sorts of wolf drama goin' on.

The film moves quickly to put Cayden in the center of wolf drama in Lupine Ridge. In only a few minutes his parents are dead and he's gone from high school hero to drifter wanted by the police. Considering the character's somewhat easy acceptance of being a werewolf and the quick pace up front, I was thinking huge chunks of the film had been excised in order to tighten up the pace. I'll never know if a padded out back story would have helped the film, I do know that what made it into the film is the well worn tale of outsider finding acceptance. So worn that the characters are paper thin. When comic relief is provided by a young woman who is drunk in nearly every scene she appears in, the screen writers really need to re-think their approach to writing characters. The fight between said outsider and the alpha male and events leading up to it are predictable as well.

At least the werewolf makeup looks good.

** out of ****