Wolfkin (2022)

Wolfkin (2022). 1h 30m | Unrated

“Trying to raise her son alone, a single mother grows alarmed at the repeated accusations that heu0026#39;s biting people and takes him away to his fatheru0026#39;s parentu0026#39;s house in the countryside to raise him, but their clashing values make it difficult for her to believe what heu0026#39;s becoming while staying there.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis was an intriguing if ultimately flawed genre effort. One of the better elements here is the highly effective and intriguing setup that plays out with several prominent elements coming together. The general gist of the film is the coming-of-age story, albeit one with the protagonist not being human but rather a werewolf thanks to his father, but instead of taking a more linear path through this setup, it turns more into a clashing set of ideals between old-world values and modern ones. That the grandparents, with their stately and stoic response to everything happening and are ready to dole out whatever is needed to ensure the situation goes smoothly without any hiccups, tend to be the ones whou0026#39;ve got the right idea on how to handle his treatment the more time they spend there leads a lot of credence to their system and creating conflict as a result. This ends up creating a genuinely enjoyable final half where the action picks up and provides some rather intriguing concepts to come about due to it letting this play out, making for some intriguing features here. There are some big issues here keeping this one down. One of the main instances here is the filmsu0026#39; use repeated usage of stupidity regarding the various subplots simply as a means of making the storyline work. The motheru0026#39;s refusal to acknowledge help of any kind regarding her son, whou0026#39;s been shown on multiple occasions to get into incidents of biting people his own age, emerges from the whole affair without bringing the authorities onto the scene or any other kind of repercussions that instead enable her to get away to the parentsu0026#39; house where even more unnatural behavior occurs. Numerous mentions are made of how they never knew of the sonu0026#39;s presence or of their impending visit yet is taken in and made a member of the family with little explanation or discussion should set off plenty of alarms as to whatu0026#39;s going on as there not being any connection between them until this point, so it simply comes off as a means of furthering the storyline with contrivance rather than anything. The other downside to this one is the rather measured and low-key approach taken here which keeps everything at a reserved tempo and pace. Not so much relying on grandiose action, elaborate special effects, or genuine horror scenes to tell the story here as itu0026#39;s much more about the grandparentsu0026#39; secretive behavior and methods that are pushing everything along leaves the film with quite a lot of extreme dialogue-heavy scenarios that might not be as eventful or exciting to most viewers out there. The main change that occurs nearly fifty minutes into the film is the first such instance of that happening throughout the film which is far too long for this one to go along without more happening here as this just leaves the film with way too many instances of nothing horrific happening for long stretches of the running time. This is also due to the film having way too many subplots for what itu0026#39;s trying to do and couldu0026#39;ve trimmed some of them out, which are all that end up holding this one back.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eRated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, Full Male and Female Nudity, a sex scene, and violence-against-animals.”