Wells: Sean Pertwee
Cooper: Kevin McKidd
Megan: Emma Cleasby
Ryan: Liam Cunningham
Bruce: Thomas Lockyer
Spoon: Darren Morfitt
Finally, a good horror movie.
And a good werewolf movie too, you can't
beat that. I was beginning to think that horror had disapeared and
replaced by comedy splicers (the decent
Eight Legged Freaks
comes to mind). It's a wonder how movies like this with a small budget work
better than the big budget ones anymore. Why? Because this was made for
the hardcore fans and they won't be dissapointed.
The script splices Night of the Living Dead, Predator, The Evil Dead,
Jaws,
and
Aliens
into a seamless experience. You would think this mesh
of film would not work but you'll be wrong. The feeling of Aliens is
here, the isolation of Night of the Living Dead, someone has done their
homework. Teetering on the simple plot of a team of commandos in the
Scotland woods. The scene turns messy when their rival wargame team is
discovered torn to pieces. One survivor tells of creatures and
then..they strike. The team is attacked by werewolves and flee to an
abandoned farmhouse. Now they must figure out a way to stay alive until
sunrise and aid their wounded seargant in the process. What follows is
everything a horror movie used to be.
The cast is assembled well and each plays their roles well. I never
stopped believing they were commandos. The score used is very similar to
Aliens but it still works for this movie and gives it that tense
feeling. Werewolf effects are done the traditional way of people in
costumes instead of phony CGI. The script jumps around from time to time
but still stays together.
This is the movie horror fans thought would never be made again. Good
effects and a cool plot make this stand out. Only a couple of minor
complaints. The film takes some worthless twists towards the end and
sometimes they didn't show the werewolves very well, which got annoying.
You'll see past these problems and see a good movie though.
The color pallete wasn't made to burn your eyes and it shows. The fog
and dark interior lighting of the house are generally what makes up this
transfer. But is it any good. Both a widescreen 1.85:1 and a worthless
full frame transfer are on the same side. The widescreen transfer would
have looked a lot better without the full frame version and it shows.
Pixelization is there and the transfer just looks muddy and dark at
times. Not a complete waste but could have been better.
Audio is presented in Dolby 5.1 and Dolby Surround. The 5.1 track just
was not produced well. Some sounds are faded while the most minute
practically amplifies. Action scenes work well but others are
inconsistent at times. Like the video it's not bad but it could have
been better.
The extras department is pretty bare. Here's how it stacks up:
Audio Commentary:
A track featuring the producer of the film. Interesting.
Featurette:
A 19 minute segment on the making of the movie. Features interviews with cast and crew.
Trailers:
Two are here, the domestic video trailers and the
international theatrical trailer. Both are deceptively short and offer
little to what the film is about.
Nothing that will knock your socks off in the extras department but at
least there's even anything here.
Packaging is amaray and features a pretty standard cover. 24 chapters
split up the movie and menus are static (not to mention set up simply)
but feature the film's score.
Overall, I enjoyed this movie a lot. Unfortunately the DVD doesn't shine
the same way. But if you like these type of movies it's a guarentee buy.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
