Late Phases

 There are a surprising amount of good werewolf movies out there, all things considered. Late Phases - known as Night of the Wolf in some spaces (and as Night of the Wolf: Late Phases in Amazon UK) - takes a very decent swing at it and mostly succeeds thanks to a pretty sharp script that focuses on its compelling central character. It doesn't skimp on the monsters, either... sometimes to its detriment.

 Nick Damici stars as Ambrose McKinley, a blind, ornery Vietnam vet who moves into a new retirement community with his seeing eye dog Shadow (Raina). It's a nice enough place, more suburban neighbourhood than retirement home... except for all the murders.

 Ambrose learns of the murders the very first night spent on his new house, when the werewolf breaks into the neighbouring house and murders Delores (Karen Lynn Gorney), a sweet old lady. It's a tense, very effective scene, made more unsettling because the sight of a disemboweled senior citizen is not something you run into very often (never mind that her intestines are piled on her stomach like a birthday cake - the gore effects on the movie are fairly good otherwise). The other problem is that we get a relatively good look at the monster, and... it's not a great design: a lanky guy in a goofy suit, with a face that's more Ghoulie than Dog Soldier. That's going a problem that's going to hound (ha!) the movie moving forwards.

 Not a lot, mind you, not until the home stretch. Ambrose narrowly survives the night - the werewolf comes looking for him after killing dolores, and it's only driven away after it kills his poor dog. It doesn't take long for the veteran to put together the pieces: claw marks, the fact that it was a full moon, tracks that lead to the forest... and he knows better than to go to the indifferent cops with his concerns. Especially since they've completely bought into the whole animal attacks bullshit and seem unconcerned that it keeps happening month after month.

 So Ambrose has a month to prepare for another werewolf attack, which allows the script to slow down and showcase its protagonist. And it's a good one! Amici does a lot of the heavy pulling, and he's engaging, charismatic and badass - it does feel like a slight retread of his work on Stakeland, but he's so good at it that it doesn't matter all that much. Ambrose starts sleuthing around, especially around church, which brings with it two pretty compelling lycanthropy suspects (the priest, played very charismatically by the ever-dependable Tom Noonan, and a shifty local by the name of James (Lance Guest), while at the same time going around and getting silver bullets for the gun he keeps waving around (the movie has a lot of fun pointing out time and time again that it's not illegal for the blind to own firearms) and putting his affairs in order. And maybe straightening things out with his adult son (Ethan Embry).

 Spanish director Adrian Garcia Bogliano (I haven't seen any of his other work, but most of it seems to involve posessed teens and children) does a good job jugging events and suspects with the moon as a ticking clock in the background. I'm not convinced he nails the tone, which veers a little to sharply from comedy to drama to suspense and back again. But it's a complex balancing act and I think he's ultimately successful, thanks to considerable help from Amici and scriptwriter Eric Stolze - they keep things anchored with Ambrose's fierce commitment to remaining independent and seeing things through his way.

 The film admirably doesn't let piddly budget concerns get in the way of providing a lot of monster action. So by the time the climax rolls around and the werewolves make an appearance... well, it's cool on paper, but the execution sadly tends towards ridiculous rather than scary.

 Werewolves are a notoriously hard monster to get right visually - effects-wise the transformation is a good one: more about ripping skin to reveal the monster within than flesh becoming malleable and shifting towards lupine. But the film screws the pooch (not literally) by not only showing them in all their goofy glory, but also by trying to have them do things that the stiff furry suits are ill-suited to, like running on all fours. The best-known person on the special effects team is Robert Kurtzman, who's done a lot of amazing stuff over the years (including work on some of my all-time favorite movies), but to do these scenes justice the crew would have needed way more time and money than they clearly had. And probably better designs, too.

 Still; despite some missteps (not just in the effects department - there are a few jarring character moments in the script itself, and parts where it scores satirical points at the expense of the more grounded aspects of the movie) this is a good, fun werewolf yarn. One more for the surprisingly substantial pile.