2008 - Directed by Brenton Spencer
 Starring Nina Dobrev, Peter Stebbings, Kevin Sorbo, Melanie Leishman, Kim Bourne, Spencer Van Wyck and Sean O’Neill

 Have you ever watched a movie and kinda hated yourself for liking it as much as you do?

 I gave this a rental without so much as a look at the trailer, going on the subject matter alone, as I’m always hoping for the next big thing on the werewolf front to make itself available to me.  What I got was a bizarro werewolf version of the 80’s fan-favorite vampire film Fright Night instead.  Beware the following rambling, smart-assey review, it goes on for a bit longer than I intended.

 The film opens with a fog rolling through the quiet little town, driving the local canine populace apeshit, and a creature attacks the local pedophile, hanging him with a noose and then ripping him to shreds, which one would think is doing the community a service, right?  Not so much, but more on that later.

 The next day our heroine Loren (Dobrev) and her brother Kyle (Van Wyck) meet their new neighbor Jared (Stebbings), the Harley-riding older gentleman who’s moved into the fixer-upper next door.    I say older, the guy looks to be maybe 40, but when you consider that Loren is meant to be 16, it puts a spin on things that’s all kinds of creepy as he starts to obsess over her.  Loren and her pal Angie (Leishman) both moon over Jared’s dangerous good looks, Kyle immediately takes a shine to the man and his motorcycle, offering to help him out with the household repairs that he’s working on; Jared is settling in remarkably well for being the new guy in town.

 Loren is unsettled when she notices the hair on Jared’s palms (!), even moreso when she notices how quickly his large black dog responds to his commands, and when she hears him whisper the name ‘Mellissa’ in her head, she really begins to get suspicious.  She starts to spy on Jared with a telescope, watching him get out of the shower and shave his palms (as one does), only to have Kyle pop in and tease her about watching the new neighbor.  Loren runs him out and later that night sees Jared return home with a girl, then she begins to hear what she thinks are screams coming from his darkened house.  She also spies his dog watching her, eerily standing beneath her window as if it knows that she’s keeping tabs on its master.

 Angie’s mother introduces Loren and Kyle’s mother Margo (Bourne) to Jared, long enough for all the women to swoon over him and Loren to remain aloof.  This is also one of the last times we see Margo in the film, she’s very busy at the dentist’s office where she works; it allows Loren lots of free time unsupervised to spy on the neighbors.

 Jared’s victim from the previous night turns out to be the missing hooker in the news that evening (because you fill out missing persons reports on your dead whores ASAP, it’s lesson one in The Idiot’s Guide To Pimping folks), so Loren hits up the interwebs for werewolf lore.  She finds out that a werewolf can change at will if it possesses a charm made from the skin of a hanged criminal (hence the death of the local molestor), they can put people into trances (huh? New one to me…), and they keep demon dogs as familiars (Now seriously, this sounds like a witch thing to me, not werewolves, are you just making shit up as you go?), all sorts of interesting and conveniently helpful info.  Angie refuses to get onboard for this idea completely, but makes an anonymous call to the cops fingering Jared as a possible suspect.  The two girls are then immediately spotted watching the cops leave Jared’s house, because they’re slick like that and draw suspicion on themselves.

 Angie bails, because Jared has left his house and no longer bears a threat to her friend I guess, so Loren takes the opportunity to break into Jared’s place and nose around for…clues? I dunno, but she’s still in the house when Jared returns with another girl, who she manages to leave a message for to warn her away from the place before she herself sneaks back out the basement window, just ahead of an evil dog attack.  Jared investigates the basement, then sees the message she left on his wall and is understandably pissed that Loren has ruined his dinner plans for the evening.

 Jared attacks and kills Angie and her boyfriend since his takeout plans fell through, the cops come by investigating their disappearance and Loren shows her hand by leading them to Jared’s house and boldly proclaiming that he’s a werewolf.  Y’know, because small town cops are usually really open-minded and accepting of crazy ideas, right?

 Enter Steve (O’Neill), Kyle’s friend who carries a torch for the supercute Loren, who of course offers to help her do anything in his efforts to be near her, so he drives her to the local gun store to purchase weapons to do battle with the werewolf next door.  Here they meet Redd Tucker (Sorbo), a down on his luck outdoorsman from a television program who is in town signing copies of his book.  Jared attacks them in public (!), posing as a blind man and using the dog to approach them, only to have the animals’ demon nature revealed in a crowded store, using some corny CGI effects.  Stevie is infected by Jared and Loren discovers that she has until midnight (because the film is all about arbitrary conveniences, right?) to find a way to kill Jared or they lose Stevie forever to his new animal nature. 

 Oh, and there’s some nonsense in there about how Loren is maybe the reincarnation of ‘Melissa’, Jared’s one true love, ala Dracula and all that noise, but it’s incidental to the other silliness and conveniences of plotting.  First of all, I have to say that the film left me feeling a little weird after the final act features a 16 yr old girl running around in her bra for the final 20 minutes or so, even more than the proceeding hour of a 40-something making eyes at her.  I was somewhat relieved to see that she’s actually 20 or so according to IMDB, so I don’t feel quite so skeevy, but it’s still an unsettling bit of storytelling as this older dude makes an obvious play for her.

 The film uses mostly practical effects, which look decent if a little stiff, and I can forgive the CGI, even though it does take you out of the movie when it hits.  I appreciated how they stayed mostly in shadows and kept it ‘real’ as much as they could; it’s a nice trend to see in low budget films.  Also, the werewolves look like actual wolves on two legs rather than the usual cop out of a full-on wolf or some dude with fur glued to his face.  The effects on Stevie as he begins to change are pretty silly looking, but for the most part the other bits aren’t too shabby.

 I enjoyed bits of this, but the Fright Night comparisons are so strong that it’s hard to watch the film and not laugh at it because it’s all so familiar, and the acting is rather middle of the road as well.  This is worth a look just for all the silliness and the lead is easy on the eyes, but don’t be surprised if you feel weird for thinking that by the time the credits roll. 

 Rental?

 4/10