From the opening title sequence, Marvel’s new Halloween special, Werewolf by Night, seems to know exactly what it is—a fun, spooky season throwback. As the MARVEL title card flies across the screen, we hear screams and see flashes of claw marks. It’s reminiscent of classic horror films and even a little bit of Scream. The special is directed by Marvel composer Michael Giacchino, and it feels like one of the freshest things Marvel has put out in a long time.
A Standalone MCU Adventure with Gothic Flair
One of the things that works especially well for Werewolf by Night is that it feels completely separate from the rest of the MCU. It feels like a fun one-off that could lead to more or something bigger— it’s new characters in a setting facing forces we haven’t seen before. It’s almost entirely in black & white and the setting seems more gothic and more ridiculous than the ones we’ve seen before.
The special opens with a narration discussing monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone, who has recently died. He possessed a supernatural item called the bloodstone, which gave him all his powers. For his funeral, other monster hunters are in attendance to join in on a ritual hunt to see who will win and claim the Bloodstone. We quickly meet our main characters, Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly) and Jack Russell (Gael Garcia Bernal), who are there for the hunt.
Elsa Bloodstone: A Badass Monster Hunter
Elsa Bloodstone is the daughter of the recently deceased Ulysses. We learn that she abandoned the family a few years ago. We get the impression her relationship with her father was not…great. In the comics, Elsa is a grumpy, take no crap badass. She’s fought alongside a lot of the other supernatural characters in the comics and even traveled to the Marvel Zombie Universe to fight… most of the Zombified Marvel hero lineup. In her intro, she has a meeting with her stepmother, Verussa (Harriet Sansom Harris), where they quickly give us all the familial info we need. Elsa and her stepmother clearly hate each other, Verussa explicitly tells Elsa she was her father’s biggest disappointment. Elsa, however, doesn’t care. She’s like Jessica Jones meets Buffy Summers.
Jack Russell stays mysterious for the first act. He seems nervous and calm, not as intense as any of the other monster hunters, making him immediately charming. He tells another hunter at the start that he hasn’t killed any of the monsters we see taxidermied on the wall, but has faced them before. He also says he wears his face makeup to honor his family. That’s the only info he offers up, which is clearly on purpose for the later reveal that he is our title character, our werewolf (by night).
The Ritual Hunt: Action and Alliances
But during said hunt, we learn that Elsa, while not trained by her monster hunter father, has some moves of her own. She gets her head smashed against some concrete Michael Myers style and shrugs it off. She is the better fighter than Jack but they eventually come together as the two non-monster hunters. Jack informs her he is there to free the monster they’re hunting (Man-Thing from the comics, here named Ted) and that Elsa just wants what’s rightfully hers, the bloodstone. They team up and help free Ted but end up caught by Verussa and the rest of the monster hunter squad.
For a short 55-minute special, there are very clearly two distinct halves—before we meet the werewolf and after. Both halves have two different monsters, Ted and Jack. The second half leans heavily on the action and throwback horror visuals in the most fun way possible.
A Nod to Classic Monster Movies
When our leads find themselves stuck together in a cage they both panic. Jack wants to make sure he doesn’t hurt her when turned into the werewolf, so he tells her to keep eye contact and starts smelling her so he can hopefully remember her scent. It’s ridiculous and also a little bit horny. The two of them are both incredibly charming and hot, so him sniffing her to save her life works. Then there’s the incredible visuals of him turning into the werewolf. It’s all straight out of a black & white monster movie. Elsa looks on in absolute terror as the shadow of the monster he’s becoming is displayed on the wall behind her.
The werewolf visuals are even more fun than the Ted visuals. They make the werewolf move and act like he’s pulled straight out of 1966’s The Wolfman. The action here also pumps up and gets surprisingly graphic. It’s not exactly a Saw movie, but for a Marvel special on Disney+, it feels pretty bloody. Jack rips off one of the character’s ears, slashes through the stomach of another person, while Elsa slits the throat of one character, and stabs another directly in the head.
The Climactic Hallway Scene: A Marvel First
The money shot though comes as Jack is tearing through the guards in a hallway where the lights are flashing and a steel door is slowly closing behind them. The POV, the lighting, the violence—it all works, creating this incredibly engaging scene, unlike anything we’ve seen in anything Marvel has done before.
Elsa and Jack make it out safely, both getting semi-happy endings—Jack reunites with Ted and Elsa gets the bloodstone.
Werewolf by Night is the best example of action horror that we’ve gotten in a long time. Here’s hoping they give us more. Give us Elsa, Jack, and Ted fighting against Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha from WandaVision next year!