Main cast: Joshua Tonks (Nic Cross), Jake Watkins (Sean Marsh), Rosie Edwards (Beth Crawford), Michaela Longden (Kirsty Marsh), Elliot Hadley (Todd), Ray Calleja (Dean), Chris Lines (Albert Malone), Jay O’Connell (Nightclub Guy), Johnny Vivash (Boss), Marek Lichtenberg (Liam), Grace Price (Tina), Nicola Wright (Hillary Marsh), Kane Surry (Homeless Thug), and Jon Holmes (Lycaon)
Director: Charlie Steeds
Lord of Wolves is one of the constant streams of low budget horror films from Dark Temple Motion Pictures. I have to hand it to Charlie Steeds and his pals: they are consistent and productive, for what that is worth!
This one veers away from focusing on a single set of protagonists. Instead, it zooms in on some folks that are moody, sour, and gloomy, all connected by some fate or bad luck that ties them all together to a cult of werewolves.
There is Nic, a photographer, and we know this because the movie introduces him taking photos while he voices over that he is, yes, a photographer. Beth has the worst taste in men, as her boyfriend is an abusive jerk and she’s pregnant as a result of a sexual assault that she naturally can’t tell anyone because why not.
Meanwhile, Sean parades around in some of the ugliest underwear I’ve seen in a while when he’s not picking up guys to shag, and I guess this is some kind of demonstration of his unhappiness or something. His sister Kirsty is equally blue, and she has a boyfriend Dean that isn’t making her any happier.
This is a pretty ambitious movie, as it attempts to combine ensemble drama with werewolf melodrama. However, some things need money to pull off in a halfway adequate manner, and this one has werewolves that are clearly humans wearing rubber masks that look more like hyenas with alopecia than wolves. Fortunately, these poor folks appear in only a few scenes, so there is far less humiliation to all of the poor extras having to be in these scenes.
On the other hand, this can be unfortunate for viewers, because this scarcity means fewer scenes to laugh at and hence, this movie is far more utterly dull as a result. It also means that there are hardly any halfway decent scares or kills.
Do the story and character drama make up for this, then? Well, no. This movie is a few minutes below the 90-minute mark, and there are way too many characters mulling around. These characters, therefore, are barely fleshed out, while the werewolf lore is similarly underbaked.
Therefore, the main appeal of this movie is watching these characters lurching around on screen, saying things that aren’t compelling and doing things that aren’t interesting. I suppose it’s easier to care were I an actor in this movie or related to one of the actors, but since I’m not, I’m bored out of my mind most of the time. Occasionally, the movie threatens to be interesting by presenting some intriguing lore bite, but these moments are few and gone before they barely even started.
Seriously, I can’t think of any reason to urge anyone to watch this movie. Maybe it’s fine to let this thing play in the background, especially since at the time of writing it is on Tubi, which is free to watch if one didn’t mind the ads, but there is barely any reason to cough up money for this thing.
These folks should have spent more time panhandling for more money to make a more compelling and complete movie instead of just churning out films in a barely half-baked state like this thing.
