WER (2013)

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: William Brent Bell
Cast: A.J. Cook, Sebastian Roché, Collin Blair, Brian Scott O'Connor
RunTime: 1 hr 38 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and gore)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 14 August 2014

Synopsis: Following the brutal slaying of an American family vacationing in rural France, a peculiar man living near the crime scene is blindly charged with their murders. Believing her client is innocent, expatriate American defense attorney Kate Moore and her team decide to take a scientific approach in order to prove his physical incapability to local authorities. As she delves into his enigmatic family history, she uncovers evidence that suggests the rebirth of an unexpected legend. When a bloodbath ensues, Kate must do whatever she can to survive the surrounding terror and prevent the chaos from spreading.

Movie Review:

We’ve seen enough of faux-documentary horror films to greet the next one with trepidation, and so it is with William Brent Bell’s werewolf-themed movie WER (get it?). Bell was the director of another such cinema verite, the atrocious 2012 exorcism flick ‘The Devil Inside’, so pardon us if we weren’t exactly expecting much from this follow-up. But as it turns out, WER is in fact a surprisingly competent low-budget shocker, taut and tense from the get-go and keeping it up all the way to a gripping finish.

Bell, who co-wrote the film with his ‘Devil Inside’ screenwriter Matthew Peterman, chooses the French town of Lyon and its outskirts as his setting. There, a vacationing family has their holiday brutally interrupted when the father and his seven-year-old son is attacked by a beast, leaving the mother in critical condition. The suspect is quickly apprehended by the local police - his name, Talan Gwynek (newcomer Brian Scott O’Connor), a seven-foot tall hairy man with huge hands who lives near the vicinity and clearly fits the description that the mother provides. 

Talan is assigned to an American lawyer, Kate Moore (A.J. Cook), who recruits her ex-boyfriend cum medical expert Gavin Flemyng (Simon Quarterman) and a techie Eric Sarin (Vik Sahay) to assist in her investigations. At first, Bell directs our sympathy towards Talan, whose crime seems to be both his intimidating appearance as well as his laconic nature; indeed, Kate vehemently objects to her client’s treatment, strapped with a chest guard and shackled from head to toe.

There are also a couple of red herrings, such as a similar crime in the vicinity where a number of horses were attacked by a savage bear, the local Government’s plans to reacquire Talan’s family property, and most prominently Gavin’s discovery of a medical phenomenon which can explain Talan’s behaviour. But of course, this is after all a werewolf movie, and in case you’re worried that Bell does a genre reversal, well we’re here to reassure you that it isn’t the case; rather, he saves the action for the second half of the movie, as Talan goes berserk during his medical examination and transforms into quite something altogether.

From that point on, Bell offers fans of the genre what they have been waiting for, and might we say that even those who have seen many a werewolf picture will probably be surprised by what unfolds next. Moving from an abandoned building in the city of Lyon to the Talan family property to the system of caves in the hills behind his property, Bell stages some pretty compelling action as Talan becomes the subject of an intense police manhunt. Kate, Gavin and Eric tag along for the action too, but Bell cleverly weaves in a subplot that converges with Talan’s escape in an impressively heart-pounding finale.

Be advised though, this isn’t on the same scale as the significantly bigger-budgeted summer blockbusters notwithstanding its proximity in terms of release date; rather, WER was clearly filmed on a much smaller budget, and Bell wisely keeps the action on a much more intimate scale. As with most werewolf movies, Talan here also struggles between his human and beastly nature, and Bell hints clearly at an emotional connection between Talan and Kate, both of whom miss their deceased fathers dearly. Besides being emotional, the action is often also visceral, not afraid to portray Talan’s animal instincts in full gory.

Compared to ‘The Devil Inside’, WER justifies its faux-documentary format much more convincingly, with Bell making the astute choice of switching to more conventional filming techniques (rather than be confined to a handheld camera) depending on what is best suited for the scene. It also represents a notable step-up for the filmmaker, whose previous work came off gimmicky and derivative. Indeed, for all the doubts we had about the film, WER doesn’t suck; in fact, it is one of the better werewolf movies we’ve seen so far, and a competent little horror picture that stands on its own. 

Movie Rating:

(A surprisingly taut and tense horror thriller made of the faux-documentary format that doesn’t ingratiate)

Review by Gabriel Chong