Late
Phases: Night Of The Lone Wolf (2014/MPI/Dark Sky Blu-ray)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: B- Film: B+
Adrian
Garcia Bogliano's first English language film, Late Phases, is
one of the best werewolf films in recent memory and is loaded with
suspense, a strong screenplay, and impressive production design. In
some ways, the film is similar to 2014's other werewolf gem Wolf
Cop (reviewed elsewhere on this site) in that the transformation
scenes depict the Lycan shredding its human skin to reveal the body
of the beast underneath. Whereas Wolf Cop was more of a nod
to Grindhouse films and B- movies, this is more on the serious side
and begs the question of 'what if a werewolf was in modern time?'
What makes the film work is Nick Damici in the lead role. He
convincingly portrays his character with a no nonsense attitude and
is ready to do anything to keep himself alive.
Ambrose
(Nick Damici) is a blind Vietnam War veteran that moves into a
retirement community with his seeing eye dog upon the prompting of
his son Will (Ethan Embry). He's shocked when he narrowly survives
an attack by what he believes to be a werewolf. The community has
been the focus of several brutal dog attacks that have killed several
residents, but Ambrose now believes that it is werewolves and not
dogs that have been doing the slaughtering. Now, Ambrose is
preparing himself for the next full moon, when he will make his
strike against his lupine would-be aggressors.
Another
interesting thing about the film is that it uses little to no
computer generated effects and employs real costume acting, which
reminds me of films like The Howling. Even the gore is
minimal during many of the film's quieter scenes, but once the beast
shows up things get loud and intense, with the creature's first kill
of intruding into the home of an old woman is highly effective.
Lance Guest, Tom Noonan, Tina Louise and Karen Lynn Gorney also star.
Sound
and Picture on the disc is top notch with a 1080p high definition
transfer with a 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy Dolby
Digital 5.1 track (and a lossy 2.0 Stereo track as well). The
running time for the film is a brief 96 minutes. Extras include a
Commentary with the Director, Making Of, FX Featurette, and a
Trailer.
If
you are a fan of films like The Howling or Wolf, then I
would definitely suggest Late Phases: Night of the Lone Wolf.
It's a tense nail-biting Lycan tale that is refreshing in times of
despair in the modern horror genre.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
