Romania, Realm of the Supernatural: 'Werewolf: The Beast Among Us' (2012)
Specifications:
Title: Werewolf: The Beast Among Us Release Date: October 9, 2012 Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller Director: Louis Morneau Writer(s): Michael Tabb, Catherine Cyran, Louis Morneau Characters: Charles, Daniel, Eva, Jaeger, Vadoma, the Doctor, Stefan. Production company: Universal 1440 Entertainment Distributed by: Universal Studios Home Entertainment Country: USA Running time: 93 minutes Language: English Setting: unspecified locations in Romania and also filmed at Bethlen Castle/Magna Curia in Deva, Romania.
Synopsis:
In the 19th century, in Romania, a young boy named Charles gets to see how his whole family is killed and devoured by a werewolf. Before dying, Charles's mother offers him a silver amulet, engraved with the head of a howling wolf, which belonged to his grandfather, who was a 'Great Hunter'. Through a miracle or a spark of luck the young boy saves his own life by accidentally activating a trap which causes a chandelier to fall and kill the werewolf. Twenty-five years later, after traveling around, Charles comes back to Romania, as a werewolf hunter, working together with a group of hunters who want to escape the world of all werewolves.
The group discovers that the creatures can infect humans and change them into werewolves, and that the mutations for some people give birth to a new breed, which can transform itself three nights in a row and not just one, as it would happen with a normal werewolf during full moon. As such, the hunters decide to work together with Daniel, an apprentice of the town's doctor, who has been studying the werewolf's victims to understand how it is behaving. So, that they can catch it, shoot it in the head and burn the bodies.
Tropes: land stuck in the past, supernatural creatures, the American hero, Romanians who need to be saved, werewolves, violence, death.
Personal opinion:
Even though werewolves are not vampires, in this movie they really seem to be part of the supernatural realm that is Romania, a place in which good and bad are intertwined, where life and death, kill and be killed, revenge, loss and victory exist and govern together the destinies and daily lives of people. Also, compared with other films from the same genre we can perceive a change, or at least the characters change, becoming more strong, independent, more Westernized, being able to take their own decision, getting to think clearly and get revenge. Which contradicts a bit Todorova's idea that Romanians are barbaric and primitive, and that they don't accept changes, deciding to continue living by the same old traditions and values.
Still, if we see Charlie as now an American and the Romanians which are turned into werewolves or that have been born like that, then Todorova's assumption is right. Because these creatures are not portrayed as having a conscience or guiding themselves by any kind of values that resemble the ones of civilized people; they just live to feed, to kill and to make others as them, acting as a virus which is growing rapidly and which threathens to spread all around the country.
Werewolf: The Beast Among Us offers a more diverse view on Romanians, if we can say as such, because not all of them are violent, bloody, barbaric and 'stuck', and some of them, as Charlie, get the chance to change, becoming a better version of themselves, getting to be heroes and save their own friends and country. Still, the fact that the uncivilized and werewolf Romanians are more and they don't need as much time to evolve, and also due to the fact that they can increase their numbers by biting and infecting 'normal, sane and civilized' ones represents a huge concern. Which brings us again to the idea that everything is a circle and that past is present and present is past, and that the future is just an illusion which goes away fast. And as in the movie, it is an on-going fight between good and bad, between civilized and uncivilized, sometimes one of them winning and never getting to have balance or for one of them to completely disappear.
In conclusion, Romania and Romanians are caught in the realm of supernatural, between past and a step forward, between civilization and barbarism, and no one knows when and how the scale will move, making one of the sides to win.
