Howl (2015)

A werewolf movie from the guy who did "The Seasoning House" (as well as make-up FX for a bunch of films, like "The Descent"...). While being nowhere near as memorable as those flicks, "Howl" is decent enough, though I'm not without my gripes...

A train stalls out on the track in the middle of a British forest where the passengers are forced to defend themselves against a herd of werewolves lurking in the foggy darkness.

Obviously, "Howl" goes about in the traditional "Night of the Living Dead" recipe of a stranded faction of strangers fighting for survival, so don't expect anything new, plot wise. As far as effects - exteriors are predominantly comprised of CGI backdrops on a sound stage which is actually done fairly well, I thought, while the CGI creatures are significantly less convincing. For certain types of scenes, the werewolves are half composed of digital elements - mainly the legs and some facial features - which may have been alright if I wasn't so annoyed with the overall design of these things. Director Paul Hyett opted for mostly hairless werewolves clearly to cut costs, so they ended up looking like something from "Lord of the Rings" from the waist up and a kangaroo from the ass down. Furry lycanthropes are eminently cooler. It's common fucking knowledge.

Despite these flaws and certain points where the movie tends to drag quite a bit - like after they kill one of the wolves, leaving us waiting for another one to strike, which takes WAY too long to happen - "Howl" is watchable, at least. It adds nothing new to the werewolf genre, but it's a worthy way of killing 90 minutes.