- Director: Paul Annett
- Writer: Michael Winder
- Stars: Calvin Lockhart, Peter Cushing, Marlene Clark
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3qdUB8N
Synopsis
The film opens with the statement: ”This film is a detective story, in which you are the detective. The question is not ‘Who is the murderer? But ‘Who is the werewolf?” We get flyovers of a large country estate as credits roll.
A man runs through the forest, being pursued by a man in a helicopter. Between the helicopter, soldiers on foot, and hidden cameras, they soon catch him. They let him go, giving him a second chance, but they soon catch him again. Finally, he comes out of the woods and approaches a group of people having tea— the men behind him shoot him in the back.
They’re all blanks. Turns out the man in the woods owns the house; he’s Tom Newcliffe, and he wanted to test his new security system. This new computerized system can identify anything moving in the woods or in the house. Pavel, the security chief, asks what it’s all for. Tom is the hunter, and he wants to hunt the biggest game of all.
He and his wife have assembled a group of five guests with bad histories. Bennington is a failed diplomat, Jan is a musician, Mr. Foote is a cannibal artist, Davina’s a killer housewife, and Dr. Lundgren is a werewolf expert. Tom explains that one of them is a werewolf. Tom’s goal is to find and hunt the beast.
Jan steals a car and makes a run for it, but Tom pursues him. There’s a car chase through the woods and dirt roads, but Jan soon gives up. “I’ll stay here if you let the others go,” Jan says.
“Before the night is over, I’ll know who it is,” he explains to Pavel. At dinner that night, Dr. Lundgren explains how lymph glands can create a werewolf. The disease that causes werewolfism is contagious through a bite. It is a disease, and eventually, the werewolf will die from the disease.
Silver is almost instantly deadly to someone infected with the disease. They all pass around the silver candlestick. Everyone passes the test. Lundgren explains that it wouldn’t have worked anyway, since wolfsbane must be present. We cut to see Tom in his greenhouse, where there’s clearly wolfsbane growing. Someone throws an axe at Tom, but it misses.
Night falls, and the full moon rises. Tom carries in his wolfsbane plant to activate the wolf with pollen. Foote talks about “Aggro art” while Jan and Davina walk off into the woods and talk about Tom. Bennington comments that even the backs of Mr. Foote’s hand are covered in hair. Lundgren points out that no one is showing any signs of changing yet. Tom and Pavel note on camera that Foote does have very hairy hands.
Night falls, and the guests go off to their rooms. An alarm signals that there’s activity on the grounds. It’s a large, four-legged animal of weight 159 pounds. Tom goes off with his gun while Pavel watches and directs him through the cameras and sensors.
A big doglike thing jumps past Tom and heads straight for the house. Toms says it’s coming for Pavel. Pavel grabs a gun and gets back to his monitors. It jumps through the skylight and kills Pavel. Tom heads to the security room, but it’s wrecked and Pavel is dead. The guests ask what’s up, and Mr. Foote is nowhere to be found— they find him in his room, still asleep. Everyone is accounted for. The next morning, Tom sabotages everyone’s car so they can’t leave.
Night falls again. Caroline, Tom’s wife, starts thinking he’s lost his mind. She’s not wrong; he’s clearly obsessed. He shoots at the werewolf with a machine gun from his helicopter, but doesn’t hit it. The copter lands, and Tom goes in after it on foot. His dog comes to help, but the werewolf eats it— and the helicopter pilot. Lundgren and Davida show up on the scene really soon thereafter. They find Bennington’s body; guess it wasn’t him.
Tonight is the last night of the full moon. Foote makes a cross-country break for it, but learns that there’s an electric fence; it’s not going to be that easy.
Then the film stops and we get a “Werwolf Break” where we get a summary of the characters/suspects. We then get the thirty-second onscreen timer to give our answer. We then resume to a “drawing room scene.”
Tom still thinks it’s the hairy Mr. Foote. Lundgren suggests that someone could protect their hands with a plastic varnish or something. Tom pulls out silver bullets and demands they each put one inside their mouth. Foote tries one, as does Davina. Lundgren wipes his off before tasting it. Carline gets one, and we see that it was her all along. Tom shoots her dead, but doesn’t take it well.
Tom explains that she was with him in the barn last night when the werewolf was there. It couldn’t have been her, but it was. Caroline had an open wound on her hand, and the bleeding dog may have contaminated her.
They hear Davina scream and find Mr. Foote with his throat torn out. Tom’s got one bullet left, and it can only have been Jan the musician. Tom follows the wolf out into the woods and shoots it. Tom walks back home to find Davina and Dr. Lundgren there waiting for him. Tom’s been bitten, and Lundgren notices it right away. He takes the rifle and goes inside to finish himself off.
Commentary
There’s a really hokey “Whodunnit” gimmick that really takes you out of the film toward the end. Actually, remembering back to the 70s TV airings, this was very likely my first exposure to a “Whodunnit”-type of story structure.
The werewolf was played by a German Shepherd, and it looks like a big German Shepherd, but not at all manlike.
Still, this was a lot better than I remembered. Calvin Lockhart plays Tom as obsessed, borderline crazy, but not wrong in the end.