New On Demand and digital download from Gravitas Ventures!

AT NIGHT COMES THE WOLVES (2020)

Directed & written by Tj Marine.
Starring Gabi Alves, Colleen Elizabeth Miller, Jacob Allen Weldy, Joe Bongiovanni, Madeleine Heil, Myles Forster, Vladimir Noel, Sarah Serio, Byron Reo

When overwrought wife Leah (Gabi Alves) has enough with her overbearing and abusive husband Daniel (Jacob Allen Weldy), she leaves and runs into a young woman in a restaurant promising the cure for all that ails her. Intrigued and without any other options, Leah follows the woman to a forest where she meets a man named Davey Stone (Vladimir Noel) who attempts to enlighten Leah with an empowering new way of looking at the world and leaving her life of servitude behind her. Leery but accepting, Leah finds herself in the middle of what might very well be an epic battle between other-worldly entities.

AT NIGHT COMES THE WOLVES is an odd one. It definitely has some big ideas, but I don’t know if the size and scope of them are able to be communicated on such a small budget. This film is advertised as an anti-misogyny film and I guess it kind of is. Leah is definitely a woman oppressed by her unpredictable husband who just can’t seem to be satisfied no matter how hard she tries. Eventually, Daniel jumps into a rant that not only debases Leah, but every other woman. So, the woman-hate is there. And there is a journey Leah takes to become a stronger woman there too. But things really get kind of out there at the halfway point as Leah reveals out of the blue that Daniel has had dreams talking about communicating with otherworldly beings, which somehow has ties to Davey’s beliefs. It all gets kind of complicated here and it feels as if the midway shift in tone and subject matter really disconnects from the initial anti-misogyny themes. Leah talks of a specific time when Daniel talks in his sleep and has a nightmare and I think the film would have benefitted from actually seeing that scene, rather than just referring to it the first time at the halfway point. It’s leaps like this in logic and storytelling that really hold AT NIGHT COMES THE WOLVES back.

That said, the premise is intriguing, as is the final moments when all hell breaks loose. The acting is pretty strong throughout with Gabi Alves offering up a decent performance in the lead as Leah. I also really dug the poster art for this one which suggests a more retro-giallo film, though that’s not really the genre this film falls into. Finally, I hate to be a grammar Nazi but technically, the title should be AT NIGHT COME THE WOLVES, not AT NIGHT COMES THE WOLVES.

Check out the trailer here!!