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Spoilers Marvel's Werewolf by Night on Disney+

Turtletrekker

Turtletrekker

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Admiral
Directed by Michael Giacchino and described as an "MCU Halloween special", Werewolf by Night is an old school horror tale shot in black and white which will introduce to the MCU Jack Russell; the titular Werewolf by Night, monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone and the Man-Thing. "Whosoever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch".

Funny story about Marvel's first werewolf character. Creator Gerry Conway swears up and down and sideways that when he named his werewolf character "Jack Russell" that he had absolutely no idea that there was already a terrier breed by the name. :lol:

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Man-Thing actually got a shout out on a first season episode of Agents of SHIELD.

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Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing the canvas of the Marvel cinematic universe expand yet again. As always, the story is supposed to plant seeds that will bear fruit down the line.
 
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I thought it was realy good for what it was. Looked really nice and they got away with far more blood and violence than normal due it being black and white. Gael Garcia Bernal was fun as Jack and I loved that the werewolf was a guy in a suit and not CGI. Laura Donnelly was good as Elsa Bloodstone and I'd like to see more of her. Her fight scenes reminded me of Buffy (in a good way!) Man-Thing looked awesome and perhaps even better when it turned to colour at the end. I hope they make more of these more standalone one-off things on Disney+.
 
It was nicely retro. It did have a classic B-movie feel -- a bunch of creepy people come together in a creepy place for a macabre ritual, and there's a dead host and his sinister wife and the obedient butler. I guessed that the captive monster would turn out to be Man-Thing, but I didn't quite anticipate his relationship with Jack.

Man-Thing/Ted was more expressive than I expected. From what little I've seen of the character in the comics, I got the sense of him (it?) as a more enigmatic and still figure, this eerie force of nature that no one realized had a human soul within. This version of him was almost cute.

I was expecting a full VFX transformation sequence and hoping they'd do it with American Werewolf in London-style practical effects rather than CGI, but instead they went old-school and just focused on Elsa's terror as she watched the transformation that was left mostly to our imaginations, aside from shadows on the wall. Which is probably a lot scarier.

Still, despite the retro technique, there were indications that it was set in modern times, or nearly so. The most recent date of death in the crypt was 1961, and evidently Ulysses Bloodstone managed to survive a fair length of time beyond that. And the grunts' shock prods looked like quite modern tech. Yet there was no sign of anyone having cell phones or anything.


CaptainWacky said:
Laura Donnelly was good as Elsa Bloodstone and I'd like to see more of her. Her fight scenes reminded me of Buffy (in a good way!)
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Her fight choreography was good. I was particularly impressed by that move where she was on her back on the ground and somehow flipped herself smoothly up onto the raised path while still on her back. Or something like that. It was such an uusual move I'm not entirely sure how to describe it.
 
Damn, I didn't realize this was out already. Guess I know what I'll be watching tomorrow morning.
 
That was a lot of fun. I really liked the retro feel. Man-Thing looked great.

Quick trivia note for Trekkies. The Scottish monster hunter, Joshua Jovan, was portrayed by recurring Star Trek alum Kirk Thatcher, who portrayed The immortal "Punk on Bus" in Star Trek 4 The Voyage Home and Star Trek Picard season 2.

Thatcher also provided the voice of the narrator in Michael Ciacchino's directorial debut, the animated Short Trek, "Ephraim and DOT".
 
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That was awesome, and surprisingly brutal. I know they can get away with a bit more blood and gore because of the black and white, but I still wasn't expecting it.

I was semi-hoping to see a Blade crossover, but it was also nice that this was just its own thing. But hopefully we'll see Jack, Elsa, and Ted again.
 
I really loved a most aspects of it, particularly the music and the cinematography. The goal was to do a homage to the 1930s/1940s Universal Monsters movies, and they succeeded in flying colors to make a faithful modernization.

That said, I do have two complaints.
  • It's a bit too short. The old Universal films were very short by modern eras, but still clocked in at 70-75 minutes. Adding another 20 or so minutes to the 53 minute runtime would have given the character interactions more room to breathe rather than everything being cut down to the bone as it was. Maybe they could have even given the monster hunters actual personalities with some additional time.

  • I feel like the desire to do a faithful homage to the old movies and to do an MCU horror film were kind of in tension, because although "spooky" that stuff just isn't frightening to modern audiences. I certainly did initially get a lot of fear and tension out of the movie, but once Werewolf By Night finished transforming and started attacking...it just wasn't scary any longer. I appreciated they went for a classic "wolf-man" design, but it meant basically a hairy guy with fangs, which isn't what we expect from werewolves today. Also, his fight choreography was a bit lame, which admittedly does make sense for something harkening back to that era, and I think the level of blood they added (more than the MCU normally, but not that much) was in some ways the least effective, as either full-on gore or keeping most of the action off-camera (as they did in the old films) would have been more effective at inspiring genuine fright.
 
This was pretty great. I found the stepmother character to be a bit too annoying, but besides that I really enjoyed it. I hope we see Elsa, Jack and Man-Thing show up elsewhere.
 
Is anyone ever a werewolf by day, though? I mean, the only time you get a full Moon is when the Sun and Moon are directly opposite each other in the sky, so it only happens at night, right? (Unless you're in the polar regions, I guess.) So it's kind of a redundant title.
 
LaxScrutiny said:
Not sure if you're just making a funny; most of us are human by night, so the title refers to an exception.
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I meant that all werewolves are werewolves by night, so it is not an exception to that category; it's just kind of redundant.

But I guess you have a point if you read it as being short for "human by day, werewolf by night." Although even that doesn't quite work, since it's only one night per month.

Basically, Stan Lee just picked the title because he thought it sounded cool, and it doesn't necessarily hold up to analysis.
 
This was a lot of fun. I thought it was just the right length of time and didn’t outstay its welcome. Loved the B&W and the old Universal movies-type feel to it. Hopefully at least some of these characters will reappear again in other MCU films or series.
 
It was OK - fun but not fantastic.

I've never liked old b&w horror movies, but it was a decent pastiche.
 
Man Thing never got a decent action figure. A PRIMAL type series could keep him that silent guardian…you just need a Dr. Loomis character to sell him…as was done with The Shape.
 
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