We’rewolves Werewolves: the Dark Survivors (2009)

Directed by: Edward Bazalgette | 88 minutes | fantasy, mockumentary | Actors: Rachael Ancheril, Christian Bako, Rob Bird, Brent Crawford, Sydney Kondruss, Stephanie Langton, Chris Mathers, Michael Scratch, Joanna Swan

‘We’rewolves: the Dark Survivors’, from director Edward Bazalgette, is a fake documentary along the lines of ‘The Blair Witch Project and ‘[Rec]’. In this mockumentary, co-created by Animal Planet, Detective Jack Breedlove (Chris Mathers) and zoologist Ivy Carter (Stephanie Langton) investigate a number of bizarre murders that have taken place around the Great Lakes District of North America. At first, attacks by a wild animal are thought of, but further clues seem to point to a darker and ancient secret. In itself it is a nice fact: a documentary about the search for the truth behind werewolves, with a focus on the origin of these legendary monsters. Unsurprisingly, this involves a lot of stuff: archaeology, ancient manuscripts, rabies, heredity and even the Vikings who once landed in America. It should be clear, this is too much of a good thing. Mysticism and ancient myths can often be explained scientifically and it seems interesting to do research on werewolves from this point of view. But to really combine everything and in this way, in a non-chronological order, to combine the Europe of the seventeenth century, the Vikings and werewolves into an overarching whole, is very funny.

The film really doesn’t manage to get interesting for a second, and that’s quite unusual in a zeitgeist in which vampires and werewolves are making an immense comeback. At the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century, a revival started with ‘Underworld’ and ‘Blade’. Since 2008, the film market itself has been flooded with films like ‘Twilight’, ‘Cirque du Freak’ and even arthouse productions like ‘Let the Right One In’. This profusion of genre films makes a fake documentary completely unnecessary and many people will be surprised to see werewolves that can’t stand sunlight and drink blood, families that hide to keep their secret and the transformation of form (by far the best scene in the film). ) sometimes have to think about the aforementioned films or wonder if the director isn’t mixing up all the myths to try to get something interesting out of them. This does not work at all. A theme that gradually seems to be sinking into its own success, along with the idea of ​​a fake documentary, cannot help but degenerate into a meaningless production. ‘We’rewolves’ is a totally nonsensical film about humanity and being a wolf, natural urges and pack behaviour. Wolves again, sigh…