"Cry of the Werewolf" is a decent enough entry in the genre, and is pretty entertaining.
**SPOILERS**
In a museum tour, guide Peter, (John Abbott) explains about local legends involving vampires and werewolves. After the last one, he and Dr. Charles Morris, (Fritz Leiber) retire for the night, only for Bob Morris, (Stephan Crane) and his girlfriend Elsa Chauvet, (Osa Massen) to find that the museum had fallen under a series of mysterious events. Starting to investigate what happened, a very long legal battle over the culprit resolves with nothing accomplished. When they find that a local gypsy tribe has a way of explaining what happened, they quickly race to stop the creature that has been attacking those nearby.
The Good News: This here is actually rather fun. The fact that this one is a predominant mystery makes it really good. There's a lot of back-and-forth over what is going on and that is rather entertaining. This also has a really believable one for this, since it manages to mix in a story about how the ancestors handled it and some rather intelligent areas explored in the back-story. That back-story allows for a bit of mystery concerning what has happened, which is done with the mixing together of a gypsy legend and that of a distorted family version. The huge museum also looks rather creepy, which is perfect for setting up an air of suspense and dread with it. The last big positive is that there's a lot more action than expected. This one has several really nice scenes , including a spectacular chase through the museum at the end, which has some great moments inside it and an earlier sequence where a character is stalked through a mausoleum by a large shadow across the wall. It's a great scene, but can't compare to how great the final museum chase sequence is. That is quite fun, and is the film's really good points.
The Bad News: This one doesn't have a whole lot wrong, and is a mildly flawed film. The biggest flaw is that there's a rather large chunk of time taken up with the impossibly long courtroom scene. This drags on forever and takes quite a long time to get through. This is also time consuming with a large segment without drawing anything with it. The case is concluded with only a few little pieces captured about the background but doesn't do anything else. This never says anything about what might've or could've helped, and that would've been a justifiable reason for keeping it there. It's a useless scene that only serves to eat up time. Another pretty big flaw is that this one's werewolf is played by dogs or wolves dressed up to look like werewolves. This really takes away from the creature when they're obviously completely against the norm. seeing a grown man do a horribly-choreographed shoving contest with a dog while others are screaming at him to avoid the werewolf is beyond ridiculous. These are the films with the film, and are responsible for lowering this one.
The Final Verdict: With a fair amount of both strengths and negatives, this one comes out as being rather decent overall. It's not mind-blowing spectacular, but serves just good enough for fans of the horror from the time period or those into the earliest werewolf movies to give this much of a look.
Today's Rating-PG: Mild Violence
**SPOILERS**
In a museum tour, guide Peter, (John Abbott) explains about local legends involving vampires and werewolves. After the last one, he and Dr. Charles Morris, (Fritz Leiber) retire for the night, only for Bob Morris, (Stephan Crane) and his girlfriend Elsa Chauvet, (Osa Massen) to find that the museum had fallen under a series of mysterious events. Starting to investigate what happened, a very long legal battle over the culprit resolves with nothing accomplished. When they find that a local gypsy tribe has a way of explaining what happened, they quickly race to stop the creature that has been attacking those nearby.
The Good News: This here is actually rather fun. The fact that this one is a predominant mystery makes it really good. There's a lot of back-and-forth over what is going on and that is rather entertaining. This also has a really believable one for this, since it manages to mix in a story about how the ancestors handled it and some rather intelligent areas explored in the back-story. That back-story allows for a bit of mystery concerning what has happened, which is done with the mixing together of a gypsy legend and that of a distorted family version. The huge museum also looks rather creepy, which is perfect for setting up an air of suspense and dread with it. The last big positive is that there's a lot more action than expected. This one has several really nice scenes , including a spectacular chase through the museum at the end, which has some great moments inside it and an earlier sequence where a character is stalked through a mausoleum by a large shadow across the wall. It's a great scene, but can't compare to how great the final museum chase sequence is. That is quite fun, and is the film's really good points.
The Bad News: This one doesn't have a whole lot wrong, and is a mildly flawed film. The biggest flaw is that there's a rather large chunk of time taken up with the impossibly long courtroom scene. This drags on forever and takes quite a long time to get through. This is also time consuming with a large segment without drawing anything with it. The case is concluded with only a few little pieces captured about the background but doesn't do anything else. This never says anything about what might've or could've helped, and that would've been a justifiable reason for keeping it there. It's a useless scene that only serves to eat up time. Another pretty big flaw is that this one's werewolf is played by dogs or wolves dressed up to look like werewolves. This really takes away from the creature when they're obviously completely against the norm. seeing a grown man do a horribly-choreographed shoving contest with a dog while others are screaming at him to avoid the werewolf is beyond ridiculous. These are the films with the film, and are responsible for lowering this one.
The Final Verdict: With a fair amount of both strengths and negatives, this one comes out as being rather decent overall. It's not mind-blowing spectacular, but serves just good enough for fans of the horror from the time period or those into the earliest werewolf movies to give this much of a look.
Today's Rating-PG: Mild Violence