Name: Wolves Against The World
Director: Quinn Armstrong
Released: 2024-09-03T14:23:06

The second film in the three-part horror anthology Wolves Against the World explores unsettling themes once again. The Fresh Hell story follows “The Exorcism of St Patrick” which aired on VOD on the 28th of August, 2024. This middle version of reality includes themes of white supremacy and death metal music. And of course, it includes werewolves. Wolves Against the World will be streaming from the 3rd September, 2024 with the final story Dead Teenagers, available from the 10th September 2024.

If You Play Death Metal Bad Stuff Happens

Wolves Against the World flickers beneath a nonlinear timeline across Louis’s (Michael Kunicki) life. The pieces of the story come together in a slow union of past and present merging. A recognition of the parts Louis loved about his past shunted up against the things he did to protect it. Louis was an integral part of a Nazi movement group. He was also the drummer in a Death Metal band led by a foul-mouthed extremist and lead singer, Helvete (Jordan Mullins.) Helvete is the type of radical who incites violence, hurls racist diatribe, and thinks he is changing the world for the better.

Reunited at Helvete’s funeral Louis claims his only agenda to be in the group was somewhere to belong. His belief system was such that it excluded the Nazi catchcries, the policy, and the unified front. He liked the music, and the friendships and felt conviction because he was “just a kid.” He didn’t know any better. He wants the money that the band made, so he can clean up his life and move on with his new niche in societies quadrant.

But like many examples of extremist groups, they lose fledglings from time to time. Sometimes these members return, like Louis to revisit but are not that easily accepted back. Uneasiness builds with the realization that Louis is in a lot of danger. He denounces his racially hate-filled past. In attempting to reconnect with it, he instantly triggers the ghosts of his crimes that he thought he could leave behind.

Creature Features With Urban Legends

An urban legend surrounding the old farmhouse talks about the lead singer of a heavy metal band. It’s via a change of pace and genre the blanks are filled in with a handheld camera who is talking about what he heard around town. Wolves Against The World utilises POV to ensure we know the wolves aren’t just a figment of Ander’s imagination, they are real and they want to dominate (or whatever it is that Nazis do.)

The narrative, penned and directed by Quinn Armstrong explores the ways our lives can be influenced by the social circles we keep. Our beliefs in times when our lives aren’t fully defined are crucial. When loyalties are split between who we say we were then and who we are now. The repercussions of a twisted case of a disastrous sliding door mentality are all laid bare. Wolves Against the World gives a great impression of pack mentality while also raising ethical points about trauma and its place in the world.

Effects are practical once again but in the opening scene, the werewolf transformation wasn’t a contender as a favorite for Mother of Movies. What is on the screen looks amazing. I just wasn’t on board with the werewolf pulling his insides out. However, there is plenty of flesh ripping, clawing, biting, and a good dose of blood spurting to satiate the casual movie watcher or deter those who fear it.

Performances are excellent, and Armstrong and Kunicki give memorable accounts of trying to resolve a tangled history. Mother of Movies gives praise to the aesthetic once again. Knowing the production is heavily reliant on saving dollars, the cinematography highlights strong visuals that are upheld by the choice of camerawork. In one scene a slow motion rewind of a violent encounter looks really cool to watch. Angled vantage points alongside tinted lighting and greyscale memories take away most of the cheap movie-making pitfalls. At times though, some of the choreography looked slightly undernourished.

” We’re all wolves, Louie, all of us.”

Who is to Blame

Wolves Against the World poses the question; If you can survive your situation, will you still come out unscathed? Is forgiveness or redemption even possible when our ties lie too deep to get out of? It’s an imaginary world that wants to know what sort of punishment could ever make up for crimes like these.

“We are all just circling and snarling and snapping at each other.”

“They’ll just do the same thing to us that we did to them”

This title stars the director, Quinn Armstrong. Of course, I fangirled over the production after that. I re-watched it as soon as possible. I need to discuss that as Anders, his character sings and, wears a leather jacket.

Not his first acting gig, Armstrong has appeared in the TV Series Grimm, as well as, several short films. He also stars in an unreleased film called “Cat” as well as Double Walker 2021.

Mother of Movies has a typed interview from my early days as a reviewer back in 2020 for Survival Skills. Read that here.

If you are looking to watch a traditional werewolf movie and subsequent transformation sequences, the independent horror feature film Bloodthirsty is another movie with werewolves in an unconvetional setting.