The Highest-Rated Video Game Movie on Rotten Tomatoes Is a Horror Comedy Gem (2024)

The social deduction genre may be familiar if you've ever attended a board game night or an amateur drama class. You and your friends are placed in a light roleplay scenario in a wide range of genres, with super sleuths and saboteurs working against each other while concealing their identities. This game has taken many forms. Many may recognize the video game Among Us as a prime example, but the most famous is Mafia, more commonly known as Werewolf. The players are split into a minimum of two factions in secret; villagers and werewolves. At night, the werewolves choose a visitor to devour, and when the day breaks, the whole group comes together to make accusations, discuss suspects, and vote on who they believe the werewolves are. This game has been printed many times, with popular titles including One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, which has been adapted into the Jumanji-style Family Pack. This also includes the VR game Werewolves Within whose 2021 film adaptation which is, as of now, the highest-rated video game adaptation on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Werewolves Within film was written by Mishna Wolff and directed by internet comedian turned rising horror genius Josh Ruben. Those who know the director's previous film Scare Me won't be surprised to hear that this is another shocking and uproarious horror comedy with a small yet colorful cast that includes the likes of Sam Richardson of Veep and Harvey Guillén of What We Do in the Shadows. The film follows Finn (Richardson), the affable new park ranger of Beaverfield who is thrown right in the middle of a curious power outage and vicious murder. Embroiled in the various conflicts and scandals in the small snowed-in town, including a contentious pipeline project, the people are at war with themselves. This is exacerbated when they learn that one of them may be a werewolf. Our hero, with level-headed postal worker Cecily (Malina Vayntrub) at his side, must keep the villagers calm while rooting out the bloodthirsty lycanthrope. But werewolves aren't the only ones with a killer instinct.

Werewolves Within

Horror

Comedy

See Also

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Release Date

June 25, 2021

Director

Josh Ruben

Cast

Sam Richardson , Milana Vayntrub , George Basil , Sarah Burns , Michael Chernus , Catherine Curtin

Runtime

97

Writers

Mishna Wolff

Tagline

A whodunnit with teeth.

This Social Deduction Game Makes For The Perfect Whodunnit

One issue that people will come across when adapting any game, whether it is on a board, card, or console, is compensating for the lack of interactivity. How do you make people enjoy a game without the gameplay? In this modern renaissance of video game adaptations, this issue is generally avoided by choosing good subjects. They could adapt an already very strong story like The Last of Us, or delve into a game with enough lore to pull from to create a story, like Arcane or Fallout. There isn't much to Werewolves Within as a game. There are no named characters, iconic set pieces, or minutia in the canon that fans will spot and call you out for. All Wolff and Ruben had were the vague idea of a small medieval village and the simple gameplay mechanic of bickering among friends.

They cut the former, instead opting to go for a modern-day middle-of-nowhere town. They also cut the day-to-night cycle that the game revolves around, along with the voting at the end of every round. While this may come off as an unfaithful adaptation, keeping these elements would make for a far too repetitive viewing experience. What they kept are the actual fun parts of the game, the suspense when things go dark, and you don't know who is going to be next on the chopping block, the impassioned arguments that break out when the tension and suspicion bubble over, and the idea that not only the werewolf is a killer. In short, they kept in the best elements of your classic whodunnit story. Several suspects are stuck in a room together with ulterior motives, desperate to not only survive but conceal their true intentions, an investigator in the middle of it all trying to discover the truth, and the killer who has been one of them the whole time. That's the reason why Clue also works as an adaptation of its game, but Werewolves Within is more effective than even that classic comedy.

The optional roles that are added to the game aren't adapted one-to-one; there aren't real witches or oracles, but the idea of them remains. There is a player whose job is to mediate the situation and make the final decisions, a role Finn is thrust into. There is a player with an incredibly helpful ability who immediately puts a target on their back, like an environmental scientist (Rebecca Henderson) with the tools to solve the case. There are gameplay elements even associated with the gorey kills as the town descends into chaos, including lovers that die in quick succession, and a person getting killed and taking someone else with them.

'Werewolves Within' Has a Great Twist

If you haven't seen the film and want to without spoilers, I suggest you pause reading here, go watch it, and then come right back. The truest representation of blending story with gameplay is the character of Cecily Moore and the performance of Vayntrub. She is introduced to us as the playful, confident, and charismatic new mail carrier of the town. She's seemingly the only other sane person in Beaverfield who is immediately welcoming to Finn, filling him in on all the local drama which builds some romantic tension. Cecily, as it turns out, is the werewolf, and has successfully managed to use the town's selfish and petty nature to get dinner and a show. This is an incredibly effective twist that works even better when you've played Werewolf enough times.

Milana Vayntrub plays Cecily as a master of the game, a werewolf who, despite being in the minority, can successfully take out the whole village. She knows how to entrench herself into the group, be likable but not make a big scene, cozy herself up to the people who have the most reason or capability to get rid of her, and, of course, fade into the background when the accusations start flying. The best werewolf players are never the loudest ones in the room. All Cecily needed to do was to sow the tiniest seeds of mistrust and let the people around her do the rest of the work arguing and killing each other — which is what the people of Beaverfield do.

'Werewolves Within's Strengths Come From Its Humor

The cast and crew of Werewolves Within did what many video game films can never quite grasp: capturing the feeling of playing the game. The comedic element of this horror-comedy is the biggest reason why. This movie is fun, and so is playing the game with your friends. A small town is a scenario where everyone at least kind of knows each other and has their interpersonal dramas, much like the guests of a board game night. I can't tell you how many games have descended into a cacophony of voices yelling "That's what a werewolf would say!" as everyone gets a hunger for blood and accidentally dooms themselves. The silliness has been somewhat criticized, but it's also exactly why the adaptation elements work. B-Horror films, social deduction games, and whodunnit mysteries all have one thing in common: it's at its best when done with a sense of humor.

Werewolves Within is available to stream on Shudder

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