Also, werewolves… who are angels… also Mortal Kombat style fatalities out of the bum… and nefarious men with nefarious schemes to nefariously destroy the forest.
“F— you nature! I’m gonna burn you with this gasoline!!!”… “Nefariously!!” (ps. not a direct quote, just an interpretation of the scene).
OK, so, in a less disjointed way here’s my review of the short film
Angelic Wolves
Released September 11, 2015
Genre: Horror, Romance, Comedy
Run time: 25 min ⊗ Black and White ⊗ Fun Fact: It was shot, edited and scored on an iphone 4s
One Sentence Plot Synopsis
Uhh….. hmmm… Plot? Ok I’ll bite (get it?!)
Pretty girl (Anna Crysell) goes to the woods, finds a sexy werewolf/angel (Braedon Badde) in a tree, and after many deep conversations, the darker side of her werewolf reveals itself.
When/Where did I find this Movie?
Twitter my friends, Twitter. The creator of this movie, mysteriously known as “Dark Libra,” sent me a copy of this short film and asked for an honest review.
Well, here it is.
My Thoughts
This movie is the awkwardly hilarious cousin of Twilight.
Twilight’s flavor of stilted and serious characters mixed with Donnie Darko style abstractions and some ridiculously cheesy special effects that call back to the classic days of creature feature movies are what mix together to make this film.
The execution of it is pretty rough, and you can definitely see the budget poking through, but it adds a certain kind of indie horror charm to it.
I enjoyed some of the artistry they put into their shots, however the addition of the “old film” filter was distracting and there was a lot of detail and clarity lost in translation.
The story itself feels like an interesting art film approach to the werewolf mythos, but it could do with a little more fleshing out. I feel like an additional segment or two is needed to finish off some of the questions left lingering at the end of the film.
However,
There was a lot of absurdity in the awkward performances and hella cheesy special effects that made me laugh. There’s one part in particular during a fight sequence involving someone’s hands, which I won’t spoil for you, that just cracked me the heck up.
Another moment that just struck me as hilarious was near the end of the film involving a chocolate covered skull.
It’s certainly not going to be a movie for everyone, but if you enjoy indie film, nerding out over experimentally created films, and find movies like “The Room” funny then you may actually enjoy this one.
But grab a few friends when you watch it. It immensely adds to the experience.
For example:
I watched it through twice, the 1st time was with my mouth agape and one eyebrow raised the whole time. If I were a cartoon there would have been little question marks popping up around my head until the screen was crowded out.
For the 2nd viewing I dragged Immortal Alexander over to watch it with me. We both boisterously laughed at the absurdity and awkwardness of the film.
I kept saying, “hang on, hang on! You need to see this part!” And we ended up laughing for a good hour afterwards while talking about it.
The most delightful part of this movie is the incredibly cheesy special effects.
I feel like that’s were this film really shows how seriously it’s taking itself (ie. not at all). The werewolf is your basic Halloween store fare, but used in pieces at odd moments to add to the comedy.
During one conversation Johnny, the werewolf, keeps having new wolfish bits pop in and out of nowhere while having a fairly dry conversation. It makes for some really funny moments.
Stand out moments
The scene that sticks with me is when the nefarious-looking man dressed all in black- with gloves and a ski-mask – shows up in the middle of the woods and starts sloshing gasoline around. This is the “F– you nature!” scene I mentioned in the intro.
It’s so ridiculous. “Hey! I’m a bad guy! And I flippin’ hate nature! Die nature DIE!!” (Again not a direct quote, but my interpretation). I still laugh thinking about this scene.
In fact, Nefarious Man is my favorite character out of the whole film, most of my favorite moments revolve around him. If you watch it you’ll see exactly why.
Verdict
This is a 2 beers in and 2 blood splattered friends kind of movie. You will either love it, or absolutely hate it. It really depends on your sense of humor.
Where can you find Angelic Wolves?
Well, apparently they hang out in trees in the woods, but if you can’t find them there you can rent or purchase the film on amazon.com
You can also follow and chat with them on Twitter.
As a total personal side note:
I was torn about the title I chose for this post, even though it was the first thing out of my mouth after watching this. It would insult the heck out of me to have my hard work anywhere near the word “stupid,” but when it comes to comedy strongly negative words can sometimes be the most appropriate.
I also don’t like to put down anyone’s work even in the slightest, (especially indie films because they’re usually made out of blood, sweat, tears, and determination) but I know reviews are valuable to both the creators and the audience, because, how else are you going to get a reliable reaction?
Cheesy indie horror has a vibrant and avid fanbase (I consider myself one of them), it’s why things like Sharknado work.
And an honest review can help connect the right fans to a project, so that is why I stuck with “Stupid and Hilarious.”
Do you feel this was fair?
Horror Made 