- Directed by Amelia Moses
- Written by Wendy Hill-Tout
- Stars Lauren Beatty, Greg Bryk, Katherine King So
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes
Synopsis
We open with a girl hungrily eating something very bloody and juicy. We pull back to see it’s just a dream. Grey wakes up with a bloody mouth; she’s bit herself in her sleep. Her psychiatrist changes her anti-hallucination medication.
She’s found someone to produce her next album, and he’s Vaughn Daniels, who was once tried for murder, but was acquitted. She and her girlfriend, Charlie, drive up to Vaughn’s home in the country. Vaughn has a grumpy old woman servant, Vera. Vaughn gives Grey some good advice, and it really helps her music. Still, she’s pretty burnt out and tired of singing.
That night, Grey dreams of being chased through the snow by something large and growling. They have dinner, and Grey explains why she’s a vegan. Vaughn explains that he almost never leaves the house. He’s been a recluse since the murder trial. He explains that one day, he came home and Greta simply shot herself in the head. Charlie wants to go home, but Grey believes Vaughn can really help her.
Vaughn says he can smell something primal in Grey, and she needs to use that for her music. She’s a little creeped out by that, but she also thinks about it. As she sings her new song, she imagines that her fingernails are turning into claws. She admits that she often hallucinates that she is turning into an animal. He talks her into giving up the medication.
That evening, Vaughn eata meat, and she really wants his meat. He sneaks her a secret bite, and she likes it a lot. He gives her a drink of absinthe, and she starts hallucinating almost immediately. She leans over and actually bites him in the face. Later that night, she sneaks downstairs and eats the leftover, raw steak from the fridge. The next morning, she sings a “bloodthirsty” song. Charlie says, “since you came here, your music is different.”
Vera goes out and picks up a hitchhiker, then drops her off and tells her to “run.” As the hitcher runs, something pursues her. It kills her and roars. Afterwards, Vaughn sits in his chair, covered in blood, giggling like a lunatic. For some reason, Grey goes wandering around out in the woods the same night and spots a rabbit in the snow, which she kills and eats raw, just like in her dream. Charlie is ready to pack up and leave, but Grey insists on finishing the album with Vaughn.
Charlie insists on leaving, and Grey throws her against the wall. Vaughn explains that he and Greta had a baby, but he was told the baby died. That was until he saw Grey on TV and knew the resemblance. Grey is his daughter. Vaughn wants her to stay with him. Meanwhile, Charlie turns the car around and heads back to Vaughn’s house.
Vaughn locks Grey in the studio and she loses control as the music plays. She turns into a werewolf but can’t get out of the studio. Or can she? A werewolf kills Charlie out on the road, but we don’t see who it is. Was is Vaughn or was it Grey? She confronts him, and then it’s time for Grey to decide what it is that she really wants.
Commentary
It’s good; the acting is good, the sets are good, the pacing is good. I really liked all the performances here. I’m no music critic, but I’d even buy Grey’s album— the musical bits are pretty amazing. The film is clearly low budget, with basically mostly four people roaming around a big house in the woods, but it doesn’t look low budget. They did really well with this.
The werewolf makeup is subtle here, not some crazy cgi mess. It’s just hair, teeth, and a few prosthetics, but it works in the context of this film. Don’t go into this expecting a lot of monster action, it’s much more about the build-up and the psychological side of harnessing your inner beast.