Director: Paul Hyett
Writer: Mark Huckerby, Nick Ostler (Screenplay)
Starring: Ed Speleers, Holly Weston, Shauna Macdonald, Elliot Cowan, Amit Shah, Sam Gittins, Rosie Day
Plot: When passengers on a train are attacked by a creature, they must band together in order to survive until morning.
Tagline – Last train. Full moon. All change.
Runtime: 1 Hour 29 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Enjoyable Werewolf Film
Story: Howl starts as train conductor Joe (Speleers) is forced into another shift, the graveyard shift on the train across country, the train has the normal passengers, the businesswoman Kate (Macdonald), the student, the couple returning home, the rebel and Joe’s love interest coffee server Ellen (Weston).
When the train breaks down in the middle of the countryside, Joe must take charge and keep the passengers safe after the driver does missing. The passengers soon learn they are under attack from creatures in the night and must work together to survive the impending threat.
Thoughts on Howl
Characters – Joe is the train conductor, he has just completed a long shift and is forced int going on the late shift because of his lack of tickets, he tries to be fair on his passengers taking the abuse, he is trying to get a date with Ellen the drinks vender, once the train gets stuck, he must lead the passengers in a battle to survive against the unknown creatures. Ellen is the drinks vender, studying for a better career and offers up an easy love interest for Joe, while being the only one that can offer medical attention during the attack. Kate is the professional businesswoman on the train, often looking down on the rest of the passengers while offering help to one of the other passengers. When we look at the rest of the passengers we get the usual mix for any horror film which adds to who we know will get picked off when.
Performances – Ed Speleers in the leading role is good as the reluctant hero that must keep his passengers safe, we can see his frustration with his job and his reluctant side of following through with saving them. Holly Weston does offer the love interest well and to be fair to most of the cast they all know where they stand in the film making the most of their moments to shine.
Story – The story here is quite simple, it follows a group of survivors that must battle against unknown creatures in an attempt survive the night. We get the unlikely group of people that must work together which has always worked well for the genre. The creatures put us into a world where the characters would have never seen or dealt with werewolves which has been an issue in horror before, but for this is fine as they must learn how to deal with the creatures. The film doesn’t offer any crazy twists along the way and by keeping things simple we can enjoy.
Horror – The horror in the film comes from the different moments against the creatures, we start off seeing small part before getting a full reveal which is always wonderful.
Settings – The film is set on a couple of train carriages in the middle of the night, this puts our characters in an isolated location where they must figure out how to survive until daytime being safer inside than outside.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are good, we get practical ones which show how unique the creatures look and when it comes to the attacks wounds come off realistic too.
Scene of the Movie – The first attack on the train when they thought they were safe.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Kate the character jumps around in style too often, not the actresses fault it is the characters decision making process.
Final Thoughts – This is an enjoyable werewolf movie that can be enjoyed by all the fans of the genre, it keeps everything contained which does help give us all we want.
Overall: Contain werewolf movie.
Rating
