I was told the other day by one person to watch the 2016 horror film, Terrifier. I was also told the other day by another person to not watch Terrifier. But I was told by both of these individuals to watch Terrifier 2, which has somehow caught fire and is on its way to becoming a cult film because of its over the top death scenes. So I made the decision to sit down and watch the original horror film… and I use that word “film” very loosely, as I’m not sure Terrifier can actually be classified as one.

The lead in this “film” is Art the Clown, who dawns black and white makeup with a black and white harlequin outfit, that looks fairly nice when splatter with blood. He wonders around the city aimlessly with his trash bag full of violent tricks. And here lies the first problem with this film. It fails to lay the groundwork to create a sense of proper world building. The physics of this world is inconsistent and at times makes no sense. We are never explained on who or what Art the Clown is. And while, not everything needs to be explained, we need to know the rules of this world. We need to know if and how our bimbo protagonists can hurt and kill this man/creature. But he seems to just randomly materialize whenever the plot needs him to.

The movie opens up with some bad special effect makeup. Makeup that was most likely bought, discounted, at the dollar store the day after Halloween. In fact, most of the kill scenes don’t look particularly good. Blood fountains out of all the characters almost to a comical degree. And perhaps the movie was trying to be a horror comedy, because tonally the movie is all over the place. The script is also as messy as the trail of bodies that Art leaves behind. People come and go just to get killed off. We are given no reasons to care about our two lead females. And there’s really no plot to speak of, just girls running around a warehouse/apartment complex/general building (the setting isn’t really clarified) trying to out run the killer clown.

The one interesting thing the movie attempts to do, is done with such astounding incompetence that it really is quite impressive. The movie attempts to subvert expectations by killing off one of its main characters about halfway through the film. The character’s death goes on for so long and is done to so much excesses, with bad CGI included, that it comes off as less of a subversion and more like the filmmakers ran out of ideas.

And that’s why I can’t really call this a “film”, it’s more or less a bunch of scenes cut together of character’s dying in uninspired ways. You could literally look away for five or ten minutes and not miss any of the plot… mainly because there’s not one.

What a quick easy watch this was. Marvel’s attempt at horror is an interesting choice as they pay tribute to the old Universal Monster movies. We get Gael García Bernal in some cool practical werewolf makeup. We get a level of gore like we’ve never seen before in a Marvel movie. And we get a nice simple story that has no effect on the greater Marvel Universe. In fact, the plot might be too simple.

This special starts out in a creepy castle belonging to the Bloodstones family. We see several “monster hunters” gather in the great hall. They are informed that they are all part of a contest to become the next keeper of the Bloodstone diamond. All they have to do is find a monster in a labyrinth and slay it. The one catch is that Bernal has no intention to kill the monster, but to save it instead. This creates tension with all the hunters, except for the estranged daughter played by Laura Donnelly, who joins Bernal in his efforts.

The structure of the movie is very odd. It’s build as a special presentation from Marvel Studios. And it clocks in at like 55 minutes, which almost hurts the movies, as it doesn’t feel like a full movie. In fact it feels more like two 30 minute episodes stitched together. There’s a clear midpoint where you could easily add in credits. You have the labyrinth section, and then you have the werewolf section. And we’re just kinda left wanting more of both as plot points feel a bit rushed.

But for what it is, Werewolf by Night is a slightly refreshing comic book movie, especially in an age where Marvel isn’t putting out its best work.