Lycanthrope
May 11th, 1999
Director: Bob Cook
Writer: Bob Cook
Stars: Robert Carradine, Michael Winslow, Rebecca Holden
Production Co: B.C. Entertainment Group
Production dates: 10 March 1997 – 24 March 1997
Revenant Rating: 0/5
Through a deadly rip in the ozone, a blazing sun sears the dying Amazon jungle – but it’s the Lycanthrope that’s ripping the flesh off a luckless group of scientists at a remote outpost. Government agent Bill Parker heads a commando team sent to investigate the silenced outpost. Tension is palpable as the jungle heat grips the group when Parker discovers that the psychiatrist, Dr. Stein, has brought along his sexy wife, Sheila, who was once Parker’s lover. There’s no denying Sheila is a beautiful woman with the loyalty of a piranha. Horror upstages sexual tension, however, when the group is confronted by an empty laboratory drenched in human blood. And a body torn to shreds. They soon discover that they, too, are being hunted.
—Bob Cook
Thanks to the COVID-19 Pandemic, working from home, and the free ROKU channel, I’ve seen my fair share of low budget horror movies. Lycanthrope is by far the worst I’ve seen though.
The film had to have been shot on absolutely no budget with a group of actors that didn’t care about the finished product. After the comedic success of the Police Academy movies in the 80s, I expected more from Michael Winslow, The Man of 10,000 Sound Effects.
The two most terrible tragedies of the movie, beyond the acting and script, are that the film doesn’t even pretend to set in the Amazon, and offers little to no explanation for the lack of the menacing werewolf that is supposed to be slaughtering the cast beyond a single poorly shot and even worse made wolf mask. What self-respecting werewolf runs around in a football jersey, and why is the line-backer even in the Amazon?
The abysmal acting and dialogue is only made worse by the visually boring sets. Abandoned warehouses, boiler rooms, cluttered offices, an obvious hotel room, and endless out-of-focus exterior shots of obviously California forests. The special effects are childish at best, and lack any iota of care or dedication to the craft. Its a shame that the cast and crew didn’t take more time than the 14 days to shoot this garbage heap, and put any care into its production.
Get ready for a ridiculous twist ending too.
Even though we cannot expect much from a D-movie that’s twenty years old, I still want to know who to ask about getting back the 90 minutes of my life that I wasted.
