Following this reviewer’s turgid experience enduring SamHel’s Exhumed Cadaver Lover, I must admit Man-O-Wolf: The Axe Wielding Werewolf from Hell, kinda makes me want to have a beer with its writer/director. For if Stephen Groo and Tommy Wiseau got together and made the most psychologically deranged, yet oddly entertaining, WTF werewolf movie in recent memory, then you can tell everybody, this is that film.
The plot centers on a flannel-wearing, hopelessly optimistic, devout preacher on the roam, Don Johnson (Hank Moen Fisher). Jesus got him high, and now all burdens or wants in the service of Christ are lifted. Only problem Don really has. Well, he’s an axe-wielding werewolf from Hell.
And believe me, viewers, brave enough to see this one till the end, Don’s werewolf transformations are as cheap as discarded running sneakers, but somehow, they work. It’s especially awesome that Don sort of magically receives his axe when he goes wolf, like in Voltron, forms his blazing sword, but not as visually dramatic.
I am, however, hard-pressed to convey any type of narrative through-line. So, Don’s wandering the countryside, about his father’s business (in the religious sense), and everyone once in a while goes wolf, like when he’s finding a room to rent, randomly roving a park, or when coerced by his friend Jedidiah (Mike Kuhns) who is part of the movie’s brilliant climax, and has my favorite line, “I’m assuming she’s dead, so let’s talk about it.”
“…centers on a flannel-wearing, hopelessly optimistically devout preacher on the roam…”
Don’s internal struggles, wanting to be pure and go full werewolf, have turned his psyche into a hallucinatory, single-person-shooter game-style delusion in which killing Jesus is an option. A curse or a gift, Don makes a choice, which may indeed be his last. His faithful traveling companion Jedidiah, who follows along in a car while Don goes on foot, tells him of a story he heard involving the same werewolfery plaguing his bible-bashing buddy. At a crossroads, emotionally, and uncertain of which way to wander on, Don goes to the address Jedidiah dishes with him. Once there, Don, hoping for salvation, will discover the savage ending of a sinister scheme and a lust for harnessing supernatural powers.
There’s a point where an indie film is so bereft of resources, all it has going for it is the director’s vivid, and possibly unbalanced, vision of what could be, which helps push beyond what you can’t see, and into the realm of possibilities only suggested by action or drama staged with tongues firmly buried in cheeks. In short, this movie knows what it is, and there’s something valiant in the soul of a little movie that has no pretensions. No matter how weird, and axe-wielding.
So come one, come all, Man-O-Wolf: The Axe Wielding Werewolf from Hell is possibly the most moronically humorous, preposterously produced werewolf picture these eyes have encountered. And I guarantee some of you will go away and watch it and say, “Wrong dude. Pile-O-S**t!” Still, as much as I had a difficult time with his last production, this shows there’s a mad underground genius with some truly off-the-wall concepts floating around in his head out there. SamHel, when you do Man-O-Wolf 2, let us know. I, for one, would be, strangely, fascinated.
"…the most psychologically deranged, yet, oddly entertaining WTF werewolf movie in recent memory..."
