How to Make a Werewolf – review

Directors: Omar Reid & Steph Henderson

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

I won’t lie, after picking up on the title and checking IMDb to see if there were vampire characters in (there were, credited as such), I settled down to watch this and, in the first few minutes, my heart sank. A low budget, urban fantasy I have seen too many of these. Inexperienced filmmakers, without budget, trying to crowbar a supernatural world in (often with very confused narratives that leave the viewer bewildered). But…

Jace A. Edwards as Xen

The but is that this is actually well done. The running length is perhaps a tad long – though it gave the filmmakers space to build their world and lay out their narrative – and the acting quality varies considerably through the running length. But, despite some pacing issues, I found myself rather invested into both the world and the primary characters.

waking up to a head

It starts with a head, and blood and then Xen (Jace A. Edwards) waking by the head, covered in blood. His exclamation of shock and horror perhaps an understatement. We are in Atlanta and the film jumps back a little while. Xen is a volunteer at, what appears to be, a church foodbank (actually it is run by a coven of witches). He asks to speak to Aana (Melahnie Bagley), a volunteer with a clear chip on her shoulder. They meet outside and he wants to see Xia (Deshawna Boswell) again – his sister who was killed. Aana had previously made him a potion to achieve that. It isn’t what he wants, she says, rather he wants revenge and should come to her when vengeance is settled in his heart.

Olga Petrovic as Jessica

So we start meeting many of the main movers and shakers. Xen works at a publisher and his tardiness has put him on boss Jessica’s (Olga Petrovic) radar. Unbeknown to him, as we don’t get the impression that he was particularly steeped in the supernatural world behind the scenes bar knowing Aana, she is a vampire. We meet Sandeep (Cofo Ofotokun), daughter of the coven leader and Aana’s sister. We discover that Aana is both barren and without magic and also banned from the coven due to her experimentation on children – hence her previously mentioned shoulder chip.

Miles Nelson as Rainn

There has been warfare in the past between the vampires, the witches and the humans’ Midnight Society (a quasi-religious hunting order). Currently there is a truce between the three. To protect themselves the witches have bred daywalking dhampirs, such as Sandeep’s son Rainn Water (Miles Nelson). The dhampirs are created by injecting the placenta with vampire blood. Rainn is dating a mortal girl called Ashanti (Yve) and has told her about his nature. She hasn’t told him that she is a lieutenant in the Midnight Society.

the werewolf (lycan)

Aana has a plan to unleash a Lycan, a wolf demon, and needs a vessel to possess – she has chosen Xen. These demons are uncontrollable and will wreak her vengeance against all those she thinks have wronged her and cause a war between the three factions. As for the demon itself, whilst it is suggested it burns out its host, we see it transform and take over Xen at the full moon, but as the moon wanes Xen gets some control back. The vampires, when we meet them, have a club where they are openly themselves, feeding on humans supplied by the witches (four a month), who have drugged the victims with a potion. This is a condition of the peace treaty.

blood on tap at the vampire bar

There is a lot of story going on and, in honesty, the filmmakers were able to build a narrative where the viewer could take in both the story and background details. This makes this a cut above many other low budget urban fantasy films. I mentioned hit and miss acting and some of the actors did not seem comfortable or confident. However others worked well – the scenes between Yve and Miles Nelson felt particularly natural. Beyond some tatty looking faction badges, you could honestly tell what faction a particular character came from, which was excellent. The werewolf transformation scenes were, rightly, fudged but the finished werewolf/demon looked pretty good. There was some fat that could have been trimmed away, helping the pacing and cutting down the running time. That said, all in all, I rather enjoyed this outing and whilst it was obviously the first part of a larger saga, the personal journey that sits at the centre came to a conclusion. 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK