Never Cry Werewolf Cries, "Fright Night Did It!"

Ever wonder what Fright Night would have been like with werewolves instead of vampires? Well, folks, you need look no further to satisfy your curiosity than the movie Never Cry Werewolf.

This movie is the lovechild of some screenwriter (John Sheppard) and a Fright Night obsession. From character names, to camera work, to its plot, this movie mimics everything Fright Night. But it is also obvious this movie knows it's being shameless, probably even finds it as funny as me,  which always makes for a better viewing experience with these low budget, made for TV movies.

We have some notables in this film. Our Charley Brewster type character in this flick is Loren, played by Nina Dobrev, who is now the star of the TV series, Vampire Diaries. Our Jerry Dandridge in werewolf form is played by Peter Stebbings. Stebbings, who looks as if Gary Sinise and David Bowie mated, has a career that is pretty mundane, with mostly television gigs under his belt. I actually remembered him from the X-Files episode, "Gender Bender", in which he has a significant part. But the reason you pay your money for this flick is to see Kevin Sorbo, who we all know from the TV series Hercules, playing a Peter Vincent meets Crocodile Hunter character to fight alongside Dobrev and defeat the shapeshifting evil, whose name is...(wait for it)...Jared.

So, since I'm assuming most of my readers (all three of you) are familiar with Fright Night, I don't need to give any kind of plot summary of Never Cry Werewolf. But whereas vampire Jerry came across as dangerous, yet alluring, werewolf Jared just comes across as a serious creeper. It's ironic, too, considering the opening of our movie shows Jared in werewolf form killing the neighborhood child molester. Perhaps he just didn't want the competition.

His creeper image isn't helped by the fact that Dobrev looks like she is twelve years old, sweet and innocent, unspoiled by life and its nasty surprises. Surprisingly, though, Dobrev's sweet and pretty face doesn't hide the bad acting performance. Usually I'm able to blame bad screenwriting for some of these actors' poor performance, but not this one. The script was actually competent, and fairly witty, but for some reason, Dobrev often comes across as emotionless, not very present in her character. It's only near the end, when she turns into a survivor, rather than a child preyed upon by a supernatural creeper, that we start to see why she's gone on to have some notable success.

I was never a consistent Hercules watcher, but for many years it preceded Sci-Fi reruns of The X-Files, so I did watch several episodes in my time. And I can see why the show was successful. Kevin Sorbo is a likable guy. Maybe not the best actor, but a genuine one, and it's easy to feel a connection with his onscreen presence. It was no different in Never Cry Werewolf. He was clearly the veteran actor on this film, giving some of his fellow, younger cast members a lesson or two in how to deliver a performance.

I also have to give props to the Evil Ed of the film, a classmate of Loren's named Steve, played by Sam O'Neill, who is clearly tripping over himself to get closer to Loren. He finally gets his chance and, of course, ends up bitten by Jared, and subjected to a painful werewolf transformation with lots of vomiting and other unpleasantness. Unfortunately, O'Neill has seemed to drop out of the acting biz, never doing another movie after Never Cry Werewolf. Which is kind of a shame, because he put his heart and soul into his performance, and was able to maintain his character even through some heavy duty makeup.

I give this movie a lot of grief, but the truth is, I enjoyed it. It's amusing. Maybe not so much for the reasons the filmmakers intended, but amusing nonetheless. After all, art speaks differently to each person. Or maybe it's just a case of one man's garbage is another man's treasure.