- AKA “Welp”
- Directed by Jonas Govaerts
- Written by Roel Mondelaers, Jonas Govaerts
- Stars Maurice Luijten, Evelien Bosmans, Titus De Voogdt
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKVo-MP2Ajc
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Without knowing anything about it ahead of time, this one is unexpected. It’s strange and interesting and very entertaining. Don’t be put off by having to read subtitles. It’s worth it.
Synopsis
A girl runs through the forest, since this is a horror movie, she falls down. Then a werewolf approaches and growls at her. She runs for the bright lights that look like cars on a roadway, but that’s no road…. Credits roll.
The Cub Scout meeting is about to start, and the two leaders start a countdown. Sam is late again, so he has to do fifty pushups. He makes it to twelve before they make him stop. Kris, the leader, says he’s not sure if they will be able to go camping as planned since a boy is turning into a werewolf in that area. Some campers have gone missing. They can only go camping at their own risk. Should they go? The kids all yell, ”Yes!”
They all hop in the truck and head to the campsite. They almost run over a girl in the road; It’s Jasmine, their camp cook. They arrive at the campsite to find skinheads on a buggy there. There’s soon a fistfight between the scout leaders, Kris and Peter, and the two goons, Marc and Vincent. The scout truck moves on to find another place, and the goons yell after them not to go that way!
They drive across a river, and they drive over some kind of alarm that goes off in a bunker. (what?) They find a spot that looks promising and decide to just stay where they are.
The policeman on the tiny little moped tells Marc and Vincent to behave, and then he drives over a booby-trap sensor as well that dumps a load of logs behind him, blocking the road. The policeman warns Kris that when the old factory went broke, a lot of the unemployed workers hung themselves from these trees, but they’re welcome to camp there if they want to. Also, some of the locals are still salty about the plant shutting down, so avoid them too.
Sam gets to dig the latrine, and he sees Kai the wolf boy in the woods. Peter says, “I told you we should have left Sam at home.” The policeman finds the logs in the road and takes a detour down a different path. He finds several abandoned cars parked down the path, but he doesn’t see the man standing behind him…
It gets dark, and all the campers go to their tents. The adults talk about Sam after the kids are in bed. Peter calls him a nutjob, and Jasmine doesn’t understand why. At some point in the night, Kai comes into the big tent and looks at all the kids. He steals Sam’s knife.
In the morning, the leaders yell about someone messing with their stuff last night; one of the boys left the tent last night. Things have gone missing, including Jasmine’s bracelet, a flashlight, a Playboy magazine, and the dog’s food. Sam thinks Kai did it, but he doesn’t say anything this time.
Sam found what he thought was Kai’s lair yesterday, but today he actually climbs up to see what’s there. He finds the missing stuff there. We soon see that Peter really doesn’t like Sam to the point of being abusive.
Marc and Vincent run out of gas in their buggy, and Marc takes a gas can into the woods. He spots the policeman’s moped on the ground, and Kai jumps out and steals his keys. He finds the keys and picks them up, setting off a Rube Goldberg trap involving a bow and arrow and a beehive.
Sam steals a can of food and takes it to Kai’s place, but he finds the boy this time. He’s just a feral-looking boy in a mask, not a werewolf.
Elsewhere, in the bunker or whatever it is we find a man dragging Marc’s body inside. He drops it down into a deep well.
Back at camp, the kids all chase after Kris, who is dressed in a werewolf costume. They all chase him through the woods in the dark. When Kris catches a kid, they must return to the starting point. Sam is caught early. He spots Peter and Jasmine having sex, and that causes some trouble when Peter’s dog bites Sam. Kai sees all this as he growls in the dark.
Kai captures the dog that night. He then wakes up Sam to come help kill it, which he does. Peter runs up just after the dog is killed, but he only sees Sam there. He attacks Sam, but Kris shows up just in time to stop him. Jasmine confesses what Sam caught them doing and that the dog bit Sam.
Peter tells Jasmine about Sam’s history. He was a foster child with a traumatic and violent past. He thinks violent kids like Sam belong in a madhouse, not in the Cub Scouts. Sam insists it was Kai who killed the dog, but Kris doesn’t believe him.
Sam runs off into the woods, and Kris follows. Kris soon finds Kai’s treehouse and climbs up there. He, too, finds all the stolen stuff, including the dead policeman’s phone. Jasmine hears a baby crying in the woods and follows the sound to another tent. It’s not a baby, it’s another trap!
Sam finds the abandoned cars where we last saw the policeman and finds a secret tunnel inside the trunk of one. He climbs down there, and we see that it’s the bunker we saw earlier. It’s got electricity and everything. As the trap goes off for Jasmine, an alarm goes off in the bunker, and Sam sees the man and Kai come out. He then finds a whole train car full of dead people.
The man chases Sam until he’s interrupted by Kris, who doesn’t survive the experience. Elsewhere, Kai cuts down Jasmine.
Peter beats up Sam badly when he returns to camp. The man also comes to camp, and steals their truck. He runs right over the tent full of bullies. Some of the kids puncture the truck’s gas tank and set it afire; the truck explodes and kills the man.
Peter runs through the woods and sets off yet another trap, crushing both his legs. He hears Sam running through the woods and calls him for help. “Help me, you freak!” That only sets off the second trap, which finishes the job.
Kai has taken Jasmine to the bunker. She’s tied up, but Sam hears her screaming. Sam and Kai fight over a knife, but Kai gets thrown into the well far below.
Sam cuts down Jasmine, and they leave the bunker—except the now-badly burned man from the truck is there waiting for them. Whack!
When Sam wakes up, the man unties him and hands the knife to him. The man wants Sam to kill Jasmine. She wakes up and kicks him into the well! Kai’s still alive down there, and the two fight. The man watches them fighting as Jasmine works on her ropes. One of the boys dies down there.
Kai climbs up, and the man tells him to chase down Jasmine, who just escapes. She trips a trap wire and sees lights ahead—it’s a busy road! She’s the fleeing girl we saw at the beginning of the movie. She runs to the road and finds it’s a decoy as the man gets her from behind and impales her.
The man hands the knife to Kai who advances on Jasmine. She tears his mask off and sees that it’s Sam wearing Kai’s mask. He stabs her to death. He’s the new wolf-boy now. The man and the boy walk through the woods as the sun comes up.
Commentary
Sam could have taken the adults to Kai’s treehouse at any time to stay out of trouble, but he didn’t.
What started out about a feral kid in the woods sure went off the rails quickly. It’s got a surprisingly high body count, and the ending is a little vague. But it’s unpredictable, interesting, and pretty cool!