Wer (2013)
Directed by William Brent Bell
A.J. Cook
Sebastian Roché
Vik Sahay
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This is a smart film that gets the viewer reacquainted with a familiar horror staple without the cartoon-ish CGI representation of the character that seems to cheapen the genre. It approaches the werewolf story in a realistic way, encompassing the real legend of werewolf origins into a modern retelling. Relating the Wer legend to a blood disease that brings about black-out seizures gives the story an interesting and believable angle.
A family camping in the countryside of France is brutally murdered. Police capture a strange and lanky suspect by the name of Talan Gwynek and charge him with the murders. An American lawyer, Kate Moore, and her two assistants step up to defend Gwynek, mostly because it would be a high visibility case and win them notoriety. The suspect is feeble and arthritic in his movements. Kate intends to prove that Gwynek has a rare disease that involves seizures which would make it impossible for him to commit the murders. She gets a judge to approve the test for the disease, much to the dismay and anger of the lead detective. The test includes a strobe light treatment which would bring on a seizure. It brings on more than a seizure and Gwynek kills several officers and healthcare workers before escaping into the city.
I truly appreciate a horror film aimed at adult horror fans with a sensible plot and believable scenarios from the characters. The trailer may lead you to believe this is a found footage film, it is not. There are two scenes in that style but most of the movie is traditionally filmed. Though the film is open ended, (allowing for a sequel) it is a tightly written script. I enjoyed this film and I think the more discerning horror fan will appreciate what the filmmakers have done here.
An intelligent horror film aimed at the more discerning horror fan.
I give it 4.1 out of 5 gnarly growls on the scale of hairy harbingers of horror.
Fun fact:
Between 1520 and 1630 there were approximately 30,000 werewolf trials in France alone. The epidemic of Lycanthrope incidents continued through Germany, lands now known as Switzerland, and Estonia.
parlor of horror 
I’ve been undecided about this one but you make it sound good – I’ll check it out.
Don’t be fooled! This is never 4.1 out of 5 gnarly growls on the scale of hairy harbingers of horror!! Maybe 3.9, but never 4.1!!!
LOL!
Could you stand those characters?
Why, you didn’t like them? They were lawyers so they have lawyer personalities, lol 🙂
Haha made me so unnecessarily angry 😀
I loved the beginning, really liked the middle, but despised the third “action-packed” act. The third act just didn’t fit to me.
I loved the action in the city and wished there was a little more of that. I also liked the showdown, although it was a rather obvious ending and may have liked it better if it were more avant-garde. But I didn’t find much to complain about, I enjoyed it all the way through. 🙂
It’s not that the third act wasn’t fun to watch, but the cartoon physics of the super jumps and hitting a guy 30 feet across the room felt out of place for the serious, realistic mood set in the beginning and middle.
Just watched this. I enjoyed it too. Nice review, Michael. Pretty spot on imo. My own “Wer” review should be posting soon.
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