Disney
By Witney Seibold/Oct. 7, 2022 6:00 am EST
Because the MCU has become as elaborate and strange as it has in the 14 years since its inception — will anyone address Vision’s “Civil War” concerns that there seem to be more and more superheroes appearing all the time now? — “Werewolf by Night” makes no efforts to ease viewers into the fact that werewolves and monsters are a real, regular part of the world. Gael García Bernal plays Jack Russell, a man who is a werewolf and also a monster hunter, and who has been invited to a powwow with Earth’s mightiest Van Helsings. The monster hunters are let loose in an elaborate labyrinth to kill one another in competition for a MacGuffin that will make the winner the Lord of the Monster Hunters.
Giant-Size Man-Thing
This act draws attention to Russell, and the leader of the hunt, Verusa (Harriet Sansom Harris) immediately discovers that he is a monster himself. She uses her own mystical means to force him to transform, even though it is not a full moon. Russell, quite tragically, knows that he is destined to kill his new ally Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly) and anyone else who stands in his way.
The Bloodstone
The implication at the end is that Elsa, a more open-minded character than Verusa, will now become the leader of Earth’s monster hunters, but with a more compassionate eye. Not all monsters, she has now learned through her encounter with Russell and Ted, are evil beings that must be murdered. As the film fades to color, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” plays on the soundtrack. Fans of the MCU likely intuit that Elsa will reappear in future chapters of the franchise, and the Bloodstone — a powerful, magical rock — will come into play very much the way the Infinity Stones did in the first 19 movies.
Everything is real
This might have been the MCU’s final attempt to connect itself to the real world. Attempts had been made to stage Thor as a space alien and not a legit deity, and the Guardians of thje Galaxy were comedy sci-fi characters that hadn’t directly linked with the earthbound characters quite yet. The next film in the series, Scott Derrickson’s “Doctor Strange,” left behind any notion that there is a scientific explanation for the MCU, and stated plainly that magic was real. Now that “wizard magic” was a plot point, reality was obliterated. Now, anything is possible and no explanation is needed.
“Werewolf by Night” says that monsters are real, and there’s nothing astonishing about that. Werewolves are a thing. Swamp beasts are friendly buddies who know how to operate a French press. The MCU has, as ever, made the extraordinary into something quotidian.
