Werewolf By Night: Super Wolf Man
2022 Halloween Spooktacular: Werewolf Week Day #2
As I mentioned in my last piece, the werewolf has had a rocky history with film and television. I suppose it reached pop-culture heights most recently with the Twilight Saga books and films, but are those really even werewolves? It now seems poised for another resurgence with the addition of a werewolf character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The (mostly) black-and-white Universal monster-inspired special Werewolf By Night hit Disney+ earlier this month. How did it go?
Pretty good! On the overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Like many others, I just wished it was a little longer (its runtime is a mere 53 minutes with credits), but I’m not here to review the special itself. Instead I’d like to focus on how it showcases its titular monster.
For me, the cage scene is everything (hence the choice of still above). But how does the story get there? A group of esteemed monster hunters are gathered at Bloodstone Manor after the death of the family’s patriarch. They’ll each be competing in a hunt to determine the new leader of the monster hunters and for possession of the powerful Bloodstone. During the hunt, Jack (Gael García Bernal) reveals himself to be a friend of the monster being hunted, the newly-introduced Man-Thing (aka Ted). To save him, he teams up with disgraced Bloodstone heiress Elsa (Laura Donnelly). If she can help Jack free Ted, then he’ll deliver her the Bloodstone and her rightful inheritance. The plan goes swimmingly. They would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for that lousy Bloodstone magic. Ya see, the stone has an effect on monsters (makes sense), so when Jack carelessly touches it, the stone shocks him, revealing for all to see that there’s something beneath his human form.
And so we arrive at my favorite part of the special. Because of his nature and her part in the Man-Thing freeing conspiracy, Jack and Elsa are locked in a cage together. With the original monster on the lam, a new hunt must commence. Jack is warm and charming here, insisting to Elsa that he is nothing like the beast that lives within and, anyway, the full moon isn’t for another five days. A sullen Elsa informs him that, with that dastardly Bloodstone in hand, the hunters can force the transformation. This sends Jack into something of a panic: “this is going to be really bad”. He instructs Elsa to not break eye contact with him and he throws his face into her hair and over her body to gain her scent. He needs to remember her. Has this ever tactic ever worked, Elsa asks. “Once”.
When the monster hunters arrive, Jack begs them to kill him as he is. He’d rather die than tear this innocent woman apart. They refuse. When they begin their ceremony to initiate the transformation, a terrified Jack apologizes to Elsa, who can do nothing but shed a single tear. Is it for Jack? Or is it because of what she fears is about to happen to her? Probably a bit of both.
What they’re doing here, to borrow from pro wrestling parlance, is selling: Jack’s fear of what he’ll become and his desperation to avoid harm to Elsa; Elsa’s resigned but terrified anticipation about being locked in with him. Elsa is supposed to be a seasoned monster hunter herself. She’s already proved herself more-than formidable earlier in the special. Sure, she doesn’t have her weapons, but she can’t even muster some raised fists and a quip? This is Marvel, right? She knows she doesn’t stand a chance. They’re selling the werewolf to the MCU audience — its savagery, its strength, and the cruelty of the curse itself. When Jack transforms, we don’t see it except as a tortured silhouette on the wall behind Elsa as she cowers and trembles (but never looks away). The writing and performances here are perfect.
Thankfully, the Werewolf by Night does not harm the lovely Elsa. He escapes the cage and brutally mangles a whole room full of the world’s best monster hunters (with Elsa’s help) and a dozen armed guards to boot. This werewolf can leap great distances, throw people on their heads, bite ears off, and tear through body armor and rib cages in a single motion. He’s everything they hinted to us he might be. When he does finally come face to face with Elsa, Jack’s desperate gambit from earlier pays off. Beneath the fur and fangs, something human still lives in the beast’s eyes, and he remembers her well enough to spare her life.
In the end, we see Jack, now in a world of color, chilling with his buddy Man-Thing and dealing with the wolf man hangover. I don’t know much about the character from the comics, but I would imagine this signifies what Marvel sees as the Werewolf by Night’s place in their Universe — hanging with the other oddities, monsters, and lower-tier supernatural characters (Blade and Moon Knight come to mind). I would be absolutely fine with that and look forward to their adventures if that’s the case. But I can’t help but wonder at the possibilities. They did such a good job selling the character as a formidable anti-hero (like a mix between Wolverine and the Hulk), that I’d be thrilled to see him show up in just about any MCU property, chowing down on Doctor Doom or some other jerk.
Is it scary? Not really, but some of it is quite suspenseful and intense and we get some nice gore, which was a little unexpected.
