Werewolf (1996)

There is a small gathering at an excavation site out in the craggy arid regions, and while a scrap breaks out between the crew and supervisor Yuri, there is a startling discovery. The team removed the corpse carefully but not carefully enough, as one of the members scratched his arm sufficiently for it to bleed.

The locals are mortified as they recognize the corpse’s head to be that of the ancient Navajo legend of the Wolfman. They are also especially worried about their co-worker as the legend claim that the Wolfman curse spreads by such wounds from an infected creature, living or dead. Tony’s body is whisked away to the hospital, where the dr is puzzled but not overly concerned and asks for some blood tests.

At the hospital, Yuri, the nasty supervisor, sneaks and appears to mess with Tony’s treatment and worsen his condition.
Moments later, Tony’s body starts to convulse as fangs appear, followed by a complete transformation into a wolfman. He scampers off from the hospital and escapes in a stolen car. His fellow crew members, well aware of the Navajo legend of the Wolfman, await with silver bullets.

Later, resembling a bear rather than a wolf or a man, Tony comes bursting through the undergrowth, where his ex-friends shoot him. Fortunately, he survives and is rushed to the hospital.

Meanwhile, a young writer arrives at a house in suburbia to take up a position as a publicist for the team of archaeologists who have recently dug up the Wolfman. That evening, the shapely Natalie drives over with Paul, the young writer and introduces him to the other team members and party attendees.

At the party, Natalie is rescued from an obnoxious Yuri coming on way too strong, making a scene in front of the entire party. She continues to flirt with Paul. Later that night, Yuri returns to the Wolfman’s corpse lying to the security guard that he forgot his keys earlier. He coaxes the security guard (played by Tony Zarindast, the movie’s director) into the room with the corpse and drugs him before infecting the poor man with the Wolfman virus. The cop wakes up a while later groggy but oblivious that he is now the carrier of the most deadly virus that could turn the entire community into a pack of savage wolf beasts.
Zarindast drives off onto the highway, managing quite well as he transforms into a wolfman. Just when he appears to have mastered driving while transforming into a wolf, he is sadly undone by a mass of debris lying in the middle of the motorway—criminal negligence by the motorway authorities. Wolfman Zarindast goes up in flames. The evil Yuri watches on from a safe distance.

Not so long after, Paul and Yuri get into another dangerous scrap, and Yuri smacks him on the back using the wolfman skull. The resulting wound penetrates the skin, and we all know what that means. Soon enough, Paul begins to feel strange impulses and to break out into a mass of hair growth at given stages, and yet he doesn’t quite go the whole way and returns to normal after the spurts of rising wolf then subside. But surely it is just a matter of time before the lovely couple of Paul and Natalie will be separated unless a miracle occurs.

There is skullduggery behind the scenes as Yuri convinces Noel, the senior team leader, that they should capture Paul, display him as their incredible discovery, and earn millions with shows on TV and at venues. Imagine how the world will fete them as being the discoverers of a modern-day wolfman?

Yuri tries to convince the love-sick Natalie that it’s too late for Paul as he is already turning into a Wolfman, and the best they can do is make a massive financial gain exhibiting a Wolfman. Natalie is far too deeply in love and committed to the man of her dreams, and she uses an Imran Khan catchphrase to tell him where to go with his plan; “Absolutely Not”. Until her dying breath, she is going to try to help Paul.
It’s evil Yuri, backed by Noel, against a distraught but determined Natalie. Perhaps her skills on the Pool table will help. The Wolfman appears on the scene, sniffing Yuri’s blood, and a terrible confrontation follows. Things get out of hand, and then right at the end, there is a twist that even M. Night Shyamalan would have been inspired by.

This film is one of the first films ever released on the DVD format in 1997 when the format had just taken birth. I was one of the chumps who ordered it and am the proud owner of the Original Simitar DVD. It’s a laughable Turkey of considerable proportions, with everything about it being atrocious, even though remixing the classic werewolf legend with a Navajo version is nifty. Natalie is outstandingly awful among the actors, and Paul’s scenes of rampaging as a Werewolf are the highlight of the film, providing a bellyful of laughs. The werewolf transformation scenes are a sight for sore eyes, and the sequence of the driving werewolf, Tony Zarindast himself, are gold.

As The Keeper, R.C. Bates does justice to his role and the acting, in general, is of a surreal calibre. Tony Zarindast must have had quite an adventure hailing from Tabriz in Iran and carving out a swashbuckling life as an international movie star with surprising credits that stretch as far back as 1971.
Werewolf perhaps was not his finest hour though it will always be remembered warmly for its awfulness and that it was one of the first films ever issued on the DVD format. This movie would be perfect for those who like their Turkeys on the larger end of massive.

You will have to concentrate quite hard if you attempt to follow it, especially due to the horrific continuity and changing hairstyles adding to the chaos. Utterly dreadful, and yet because of its success in achieving that level of awfulness, it gives the film value for connoisseurs of cinematic turkeys.