Skinwalkers

This thoroughly negligible werewolf movie is just good enough to be competently irritating. Unlike this year’s other terrible lycanthropy romp, Blood and Chocolate, it’s professionally made and hangs together but seems so banal that the other movie is like camp heaven by comparison. A conflict is established between a family of werewolves who control their brutal desires and a gang of thugs all too happy to spill the blood of the innocent. The fight is over a 13-year-old boy who’s part of one of those boring prophecies that will settle the ultimate fate of something or other. I glazed over many a time watching this thing, meaning the subtleties of werewolf politics were slightly lost on me, but it’s obvious that the goody two shoes must triumph over the leather-clad and sexy. As I usually side with the freaks in the equation, this is extremely annoying, but the bigger problem is that the good vs. evil scenario doesn’t have much nuance. Director Jim Isaac goes on about "the beast within” on the commentary track but he doesn’t really explore the idea of repressing antisocial desires. It’s just a conceit for a monster movie and with a bunch of stick-figure non-characters, it never grabs the sensibilities once. The film is well enough made but it’s a crashing bore all around, with even the fight scenes failing to cause much excitement; you’d be better off renting The Howling and calling it a full moon. Extras include the aforementioned Jim Isaac commentary, in which he praises the cast and script in the most limited terms, a "making of” that won’t surprise anyone, some mock-ups and animatics of one particular sequence (with optional producer’s commentary), and eight deleted scenes.