TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

dougdoepke Well-done werewolf flick. Filming on location at snowy Big Bear, north-east of LA, gives the horror setting a different look. Then too, the human element is effectively played up, as the authorities are torn between killing a pathetic family man and the same man who's also a homicidal werewolf. Poor Stephen Ritch, he's just an ordinary guy until a misguided professor turns him into a lycanthrope. Now loose in the mountains and running from a posse, he's suffering, knowing any moment he can become a drooling monster. Meanwhile his wife and child pose a big human problem for the sheriff and his deputy. So, which will win out-- the human side or the monster.Kudoes to pedestrian director Sears who manages some imaginative visuals. Unlike his usual steamroller approach, here he seems at times almost inspired (the jail cell shadows). Add what seems like an authentic mountain town atmosphere, and the results both visually and dramatically are unusual for the genre. Plus, actor Ritch manages what appears real anguish in what could have otherwise been an easy payday. I guess my only reservation is with the culprit professor, whose presence smacks too much of hackneyed cliché. But then, his presence heightens the moral dilemma. After all, since he's induced the lycanthropy, it's maybe possible to medically undo it. That is, if the authorities don't kill Ritch first. There's a moral depth here, unusual for its time.Anyway, the 70-minutes amounts to a near sleeper among the many tacky horror flicks of that Corman dominated decade.

Scott LeBrun Steven Ritch plays a stranger who arrives in the small California town of Mountaincrest, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He also has the unfortunate tendency to sprout hair, claws, and fangs at any old time, and the townsfolk attempt to catch Ritch in his wolfish form. Then two doctors (S. John Launer, George Lynn) follow Ritch there, knowing full well that they're the ones who put him in his predicament, and try to cover up their actions."The Werewolf" is a well acted, modest production that gets great mileage out of its Big Bear Lake locations, as well as fine atmosphere. It also puts a fresh spin on the standard werewolf story, taking it into the Atomic Age and giving us a lycanthrope born of not myth and legend but of scientific meddling. Of course, like many a good werewolf story, it's also a tragedy, with a main character who does earn our sympathies. People like Dr. Gilcrist (Ken Christy) and his niece Amy Standish (Joyce Holden) work at convincing the law, represented by Don Megowan as the sheriff and Harry Lauter as his deputy, to please try to take Ritch alive, if possible, knowing that he is a basically good man who cannot control what is happening to him.The werewolf makeup by Clay Campbell is decent, the stock music appropriated serves its purpose, and there is some very crisp black & white photography by Edward Linden. The performances are fine, with Megowan as a sturdy, jut jawed (if not that expressive) hero; Eleanore Tanin and Kim Charney are appealing as Ritchs' distraught wife and son.Good entertainment, with a striking finale done in long shot at a dam.Seven out of 10.

GL84 Following a strange accident, a small-town sheriff is forced to believe that the attacks are caused by a stranger passing through town who claims he is a werewolf created in an experiment and try whatever they can to capture the creature before it can do more harm.This one isn't that bad with some solid points about it. One of the best parts to this one is that fact that it has a really great way of making the werewolf a really interesting creature, where not only does this have a unique way of bringing about the change while creating a more era-appropriate style monster. This gives the creature a little extra it might otherwise be missing as being a generic werewolf, and it does have a better a more impressive tone throughout here due to that with how it turns the creature's origin loose on the small-town wilderness. The design isn't that terrible for the time, having the classic look to it with the hair pattern, but the inclusion of much more fearsome and intimidating set of fangs, complete with drool, are a nice touch. What also seems to be a positive is that there's a large amount of action for it, and these here are what make the film an overall enjoyable one with a steady stream of nice scenes. From the opening attack on the mugger to the first chase into the woods as they attempt to track him down, these here are quite fun with plenty to like about it. The finale is the best scene since it travels through the forest, over a mountain, onto a road, down a bridge and into a gorge where the final confrontation takes place, where the relentless chasing of the villagers along the way makes it a really great action scene. Along with the easy pace, these here are the movie's main positive points. This one here doesn't have a whole lot of flaws. The biggest issue is that the werewolf has a lot of traditions changed around. There's the fact that silver bullets don't kill it and regular ones do, especially in werewolf form as regular bullets stop it in werewolf form, which is a big change to the traditions. The biggest ones, though, is that it transforms during daylight hours, which very rarely happens, and although this one does have a real unique way of coming into being, it still gets the powers of a werewolf without the bite or wound. Some of these changes aren't quite that impressive here with some really lame after-thoughts and won't be all that embraced by true fans. Another big flaw is all of the family drama in the film. There's really no need for all of it and it really drags down the film. The big flaw is that this one displays a real piece of stupidity that shouldn't have been with the werewolf locked up. The reason why it's let loose from the cage is a mystery, as it feels likes it's there mainly to stretch out the film a little bit but doesn't even need to be there anyway because of that angle of just stretching out the film by letting the werewolf get loose again to go out on a rampage. These flaws stop the film somewhat.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

Ben Larson Supposedly unreleased on VHS or DVD until now, as part of a compilation, this is a rare werewolf film that almost looks like a Western due to its location.Fred Sears, whose Scifi/horror resume includes Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and The Giant Claw, directs a cast that includes cowboy Steven Ritch ("The Lone Ranger", "Broken Arrow", "The Rifleman", and many more), Don Megowan (The Creature Walks Among Us, and lots of Westerns), and "Miss Southern California" of 1949, Joyce Holden.Makeup and transformation were really good.This is one that should be required viewing for wolfman fans.