I’d rather be lucky than smart – I stumbled onto this delightful little yarn with zero knowledge that it was a 55 minute, and first ever, installment of Marvel Studios Special Presentations .
To be honest, I’d gotten burned out on the bloated, overly long, overstuffed Marvel films. This little surprise could be a game-changer for viewers like me who enjoy a more pared down story with a great sense of humor as its base and the perfect cast to pull it off.
The logline:
Following the death of Ulysses Bloodstone, five experienced monster hunters, including Jack Russell, are summoned by Ulysses’ widow, Verussa, to Bloodstone Manor, where they are instructed to participate in a competitive hunt to determine their new leader, who will wield the powerful Bloodstone. Ulysses’ estranged daughter Elsa also arrives to compete for the Bloodstone, despite Verussa warning her against doing so.
Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal) is the most successful of the gathered monster hunters with over a hundred kills to his credit, but we sense that he is also harboring a secret (um, he’s also a Werewolf, duh) that will be revealed at juuuust the wrong time.
He and the 4 other hunters enter into an enclosed maze – the one to catch and kill will be, like, the winner. The others, not so much. Playing the rebellious daughter, Elsa, is Irish actress Laura Donnelly, whose luminous face in the lush black and white cinematography makes her look like a star from the Golden Age. The thing is, she’s also funny and coarse and totally relatable.
Elsa’s stepmom, the widow of Ulysses Bloodstone, is played to comedic perfection by veteran stage actress Harriet Samson Harris, who was so amazing during her five minutes of screen time in Licorice Pizza that I became her fan for life.
The story moves quickly, looks amazing and has a perfect finish that could either be the end…or the beginning – we’ll see what the Marvel TV Special folks have in store for us. Either way, it’s cool to know that, format-wise, there are more of these specials coming down the pike.
Werewolf by Night is streaming on Disney + | 4 out of 4 Stars
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