Marvel Studios’ “Werewolf By Night” comes o-WOOOUU… We’re sorry, did we just howl? Yes, apologies. We were saying, “Werewolf By Night” is now out on Disney+ and we have a couple of things to howl about!
In itself, “Werewolf By Night” is a very self-contained plot, telling the story of misunderstood creatures. During a ritual to honour Ulysses Bloodstone subsequent to his death, a group of 6 ‘hunters’ gather to try and take possession of a gem called the… you guessed it… Blood Stone. Among the hunters are Jack and Elsa, who are there for specific reasons.
Eventually, Jack reveals that he is friends with the monster being hunted, Man-Thing. As of that moment, he is just trying to get out unscathed, with his friend. Elsa, on the other hand, wishes to end the cycle of bloodshed and violence perpetuated by her father, Ulysses, and her stepmother, Verusa. After Elsa learns of his motivations, she decides to help him complete his mission. On the flip side, Jack agrees to help Elsa gain the glowing red rock.
During the third act of “Werewolf By Night”, Jack and Elsa are surrounded after the latter grabs the Bloodstone lodged from the back of Man-Thing. Jack tries to pick the stone up but it expels him back. Due to this unusual behaviour of the gem, Verusa comes to the conclusion that Jack was a monster posing as a hunter. Elsa and Jack are then incapacitated at the behest of the elder.
Upon waking up, Jack discovers that he is in a cage. Yet, he is not alone. Elsa is in there with him as well, noting that this was her death sentence as she would die at the hands of the monster he transforms into. Although Jack tries to convince her that he has managed to cope with the transformations by staying in during a full moon, Elsa knows full well the danger that she is in. She tells Jack that instead of transforming in five days, which is when the full moon would be, the Bloodstone would transform him in five seconds.
Verusa soon storms in with her crew and Jack becomes increasingly nervous but still manages to maintain his composure. He knows at this point that his transformation is inevitable. Therefore, he sniffs Elsa’s right limb and head to get a good whiff of her scent, noting that it will help him remember her when he is his alter-ego. He also warns Elsa not to break eye contact, no matter what.
Despite Jack’s pleas to Verusa to not proceed with her vile intentions, it falls upon deaf ears as she then turns him through the power of the Bloodstone. The Werewolf comes into full view, and a monstrous carnage breaks free, taking apart the inhabitants of the Bloodstone estate one by one. Guards are dispatched with bloody ease, and the remaining hunters are slain by Elsa as well.
Verusa and the Werewolf have a final standoff and she uses the scarlet stone against the furry creature, pinning him down. However, Elsa comes to his aid and incapacitates her with a grappling hook. Seeing that the Bloodstone now lies on the ground, Elsa takes it while keeping her eyes focused on the beast on the ground ahead of her.
In a moment, Jack leaps on her and snarls intending to kill her, but he hesitates. He remembers something. A smell. Yes, that scent from earlier causes him to look deep into her eyes, searching as he growls warily. Elsa, clearly shaken reaches out her hand to touch his face, aware that this is not just a mindless creature, but one with a capability for emotion.
And then he leaves, bounding away from where he came in at the beginning…
The wicked stepmother awakens once more to taunt Elsa with snide remarks, stating that Ulysses would never approve of her. However, just before she can finish, Man-Thing hops into the frame, burning her with his potent acid till she becomes an ashy decapitated husk.
The giant plant creature requests the location of his werewolf friend, to which Elsa points him in the right direction and he soon lumbers away as well.
TAKING THE NAME FOR HERSELF
With the Blood Stone now within her possession, Elsa, exhausted from her fight, proceeds to sit down. There is a sigh of relief as the colour begins to wash down upon the frames, revealing the vermilion jacket she has been wearing this whole time. “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” by Judy Garland plays as she carries out her first command over the Bloodstone estate.
In itself, it’s a poetic conclusion to her arc as she essentially lays claim to her name. She has been missing for so long, estranged, and now, Elsa can finally exercise her birthright. There is a proverbial pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.
As Verusa states, the Blood Stone grants its user strength, protection, and longevity. As such, Elsa would be a durable asset to whoever she chooses to work with. Even if she was working alone, she would still be able to carry out her tasks more efficiently.
It is still unclear as to where this Blood Stone comes from. Does it have supernatural origins? If we go to the source material, however, this gem was a fragment of a meteorite that was controlled by the Exo-Mind, a gang of extra-dimensional Elders who had the idea to conquer other dimensions. Ulysses came into contact with it, and after he was betrayed by the Exo-Mind, who murdered his tribe, he became enraged and a piece of the meteorite was embedded into his chest.
Yet, what would Elsa do with such power? Would her encounter with the Werewolf make her want to seek out more of monster-kind and become a documentarian of different species to help humans understand them better? This could be her mission to show that monsters are just misunderstood. Nevertheless, if push comes to shove, she would still maintain the power to take down these powerful beasts.
Therefore, what becomes of Elsa and the Bloodstone next? Hopefully, she gets to play around with someone like Ghost Rider or shake hands with the Abominable Snowman. Oh, and please. Oh please Elsa, get some big-ass guns for your profile.
WERE-AMIGOS
On the other side of the picture, Jack awakens once more but not as a raging Lycan. Man-Thing has found him and the two are off somewhere safe, far from the reach of the humans.
Man-Thing, or Ted, as he is called, is seen sipping coffee as they discuss the previous night. Jack inquires about Elsa and Ted assures him that she survived and is safe. They jest upon who was the saviour of the day before staring off into the blue sky above as the ‘monsters’ are left to see another day.
“Werewolf By Night” establishes a whole other side of the MCU, introducing fans to the concept of monsters within this cinematic universe. It is a more supernatural world that we are leaning into, and this makes sense since characters like Blade are getting spotlighted.
In the opening scene, there are a bunch of trophy heads that have been mounted on the walls of the estate. And some of these are really deep-cut Marvel creatures. The one seen in the image above is most probably a sasquatch. There is also the Wendigo King, Batragon, Manphibian, another bat-like creature, and something that probably was meant to be the Two-Headed Thing but was crossed with the sirens of the oceans.
Granted, these aren’t famous monsters, which is great because we would not have liked to see Fin Fang Foom in dry bone form. Rather, this opens up the possibility to have Sasquatch (the real Sasquatch this time), The Living Mummy, The Abominable Snowman, and various other vampires like Dracula come in and create some chaos.
This shouldn’t be the last we see of Werewolf and Man-Thing and it’s just a one-shot to give them the spotlight. We should expect them to pop up in other projects sometime and mingle around with say, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, or someone spooky.
One thing that would be interesting to see or bring up is Man-Thing’s origin. Because ‘Ted’, is actually referring to his human alter-ego, Dr Ted Sallis. See, Sallis was a biochemist who got doublecrossed and when push came to shove, he downed his own Super Soldier recreation and turned into the being known as Man-Thing, who is extremely fearsome, yet empathetic, like we see in the show.
A DISTANT PAST
The monochrome setting and archaic-looking wardrobe hint at the MCU’s past. Although Michael Giacchino, the director, has gone on record to say that he meant for it to be ambiguous, there are some clues as to when this takes place. Of course, the first is through noting the dates on the coffins when Elsa and Jack are trapped in the mausoleum.
During the scene where Jack and Elsa are trapped together, she opens one of the burial chambers belonging to her aunt who died in 1922. If we assume that Elsa was in her 30s or 40s and that she was born around the time her aunt died, that would mean that the Special takes place during the 1950 or 60s.
The second thing to note is the guards that serve the estate. No, unfortunately, they are not TVA agents from an extradimension. Nevertheless, they sport some reasonably high-tech-looking shock sticks and standard armour to battle their foes. Yet, they aren’t as what standard guards in the MCU use nowadays.
Where do they come from? How have they gotten there with that sort of weaponry? It probably can be explained by Ulysses’ fortune and exploits in monster hunting, which allow him to research and accumulate resources to fight monsters, passing this information down to others.
If Elsa and Werewolf were to return in the present day, their appearances shouldn’t be changing much with the exception of their clothes. Despite the time difference, Elsa should look the same due to the Blood Stone’s powers. And since we’re dealing with monsters, there is a high chance that Jack and Man-Thing are not going to age as well due to their longevity.
All in all, the sandbox has been opened and it’s a major one. With “Werewolf By Night” being Marvel’s ‘goriest’ project to date, there is potential for more projects that require blood to be told to an audience. Bring on the vampires!
By the way, did someone notice that the moon looks really beautiful tonight? It’s just so round and radiant. Guess we gotta go now and have a closer look. Take care and we’ll see you ar-WOOOOOUuuuu…
Marvel Studios’ “Werewolf By Night” is now streaming on Disney+.
