Skinwalkers

Whatever happened to good ol' fashioned movies like Teen Wolf? That's the question you'll be asking after watching the latest offering from James Isaac. Skinwalkers, as you might guess, is a werewolf movie to which "run-of-the-mill" has hardly been so boringly applied. The story starts in rural town Hugenot, somewhere in the woodlands Timothy (Matthew Knight) is just about to turn 13 and complains to his mother (Rhona Mitra) that he's been having a series of bad dreams. Rather than talking him through it as normal parents would , by starting off with "when a boy likes a girl", mom realises that something's amiss. This turns out especially true when a marauding bunch of bikers led by Varek (Jason Behr) comes to town and shoots everybody in it to look for the boy. When that happens, Tim, his mother, Uncle Jonas (Elias Koteas), and a few stragglers skip town to escape the carnage, which is when little Timmy finds out that while his mum is human, his father, like everyone else in Hugenot, is a werewolf. Thankfully, tim learns of a legend that says he can remove the curse when he hits 13 and the moon turns red. Varek, however, doesn't look at it the same way, preferring instead to remain a werewolf and eat humans. Therein lies the conflict. Duh. While Skinwalkers has James Isaac plying on the costumes, hair and stunts, he fails to turn any of the bloodlust into anything more psychologically tensed than Disney's The Fox And The Hound, which when you think of it, runs on pretty much the same premise of instinctual conflict. Poorly written, directed, and shot, there's little to salvage from this wreck of movie. Go watch Teen Wolf. At least that's leave you howling.