Main cast: Nina Dobrev (Loren Hansett), Kevin Sorbo (Redd Tucker), Spencer Van Wyck (Kyle Hansett), Melanie Leishman (Angie Bremlock), Kim Bourne (Margo), Sean O’Neill (Steven Kepkie). Nahanni Johnstone (Christie), Von Flores (Detective Stalling), Rothaford Gray (Sergant Hillam), Billy Otis (Charles Ray Pope), and Peter Stebbings (Jared Martin)
Director: Brenton Spencer
This Never Cry Werewolf is such a direct frame-to-frame “homage” of Fright Night that I can only wonder whether such a move is a legal. Oh, there are some changes. It’s now a teenage girl, Loren, who plays the lead role, the vampire is now a werewolf, and the cowardly down-on-his-luck horror TV show host is now a cowardly down-on-his-luck hunting TV show host.
Loren is a typical teenage girl who has an annoying younger brother and a single mother who is often away from home making ends meet. One day, a handsome older man Jared Martin moves in next door. He has a Harley, which instantly wins him the hero worship of Loren’s brother Kyle. However, Loren soon suspects that Jared is a werewolf, especially since she peeked at his place and saw him with a prostitute that was reported missing the next day. However, no one, not even her best friend Angie, believes her. Worse, Loren is a dead ringer for Jared’s beloved late wife, so he is going to try to, er, win her over.
Anyone who has seen Fright Night will find this movie, er, frighteningly familiar, as it rips off that movie with glee, right down to replicating key scenes almost frame by frame. Still, Nina Dobrev really kicks some ass in her role. Peter Stebbings could have worked out a bit more for his shirtless scenes, but still, he’s good looking enough to pull off that menacing creepy older man thing. Kevin Sorbo is obviously having fun with his role as the TV show host pulled into the mess by being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and his glee practically flies off the screen in his scenes.
The werewolf special effects are not too impressive, but for a fairly low budget flick that debut at the SyFy channel, they are not that bad. Actually, because Jared is an immortal werewolf that can control his transformation, the movie doesn’t have to focus too much on the werewolf transformation scenes. This is bad news for fans looking for that kind of thing, but then again, Never Cry Werewolf isn’t really a good horror movie.
What it is, instead, is a cheesy and admittedly average movie that is nonetheless quite fun to watch due to the competent cast. Besides, it’s ripping off a movie that is considered a classic cult favorite for many good reasons, and it does this competently. So, as much as I normally won’t approve of such copycat efforts, I can’t deny that I had a pretty good time watching it. It’s not scary or original, but it’s… fun. And sometimes, that’s good enough.
