While you’re at it, go ahead and cast some of the best comedic character actors in the world to play your “villagers.” Werewolves Within’s cast is stacked with funny people you love to see on screen. Sam Richardson from Veep and The Detroiters plays Finn Wheeler, a park ranger assigned to patrol the small town of Beaverfield, Vermont during the ongoing pipeline negotiations. Finn becomes fast friends with AT&T girl Milana Vayntrub’s postal worker Cecily Moore, another newcomer to this strange little town. We’ve got Broadway actor and singer Cheyenne Jackson and What We Do in the Shadows’ Harvey Guillén as the Wolfsons, a rich gay couple with unfortunate last name who moved to Beaverfield to settle down. I absolutely love Orange is the New Black’s Catherine Curtin as the owner of Beaverfield’s local inn, where the crew finds themselves holed up after a snowstorm and some mysterious animal attacks leave the town without power.

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A cast photo from Ubisoft's Werewolves Within, a movie that has almost nothing to do with the video game it's based on.
This cast is comedy horror gold.
Screenshot: IFC Films

The plot of Werewolves Within is nothing new. It’s a classic whodunit mixed with some light gore, gathering gifted actors and trapping them in tight confines with a murderer on the loose. Hollywood’s been doing these sorts of flicks forever, their success hinging on the quality of their cast and the strength of the script. Werewolves Within has an outstanding cast, and it’s appropriately named scriptwriter, humorist Mishna Wolff, gives the actors plenty of fun material to work with.

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Highlights include Ranger Finn and Mailman Moore’s early walk through the snowy wilds of Beaverfield, introducing the quirky cast of characters one by one while Richardson and Vayntrub’s chemistry lights up the screen. The moment from the trailer when the cast is fully-assembled at the local inn and do a quick check to see who is armed (everyone is armed) is hilarious. And any time the Wolfsons are on the screen you’re in for a good time. “Are we really in a Mexican standoff right now?” “Oh honey, don’t say Mexican, just say standoff.”

Cheyenne Jackson and Harvey Guillén in the dark woods in a still from Werewolves Within.
Cheyenne Jackson and Harvey Guillén are the best couple ever.
Screenshot: IFC Films
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Werewolves Within is the kind of clever horror comedy that will keep you guessing up until the very end, unless you’re my spouse who figured it out in five minutes and won’t ever let me forget it. The gore is relatively mild, though there were a few times I had to turn away—let’s just say I am not a fan of bad things happening to hands. Otherwise it’s a delightful and fun little character study that just happens to have a werewolf in it, which is basically what the video game was all about. You’d know if you’d played.