Rating: NR | Runtime: 88 minutes
Release Date: September 3rd, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Cranked Up Films
Director(s): Quinn Armstrong
Writer(s): Quinn Armstrong

Louis (Michael Kunicki) is a reformed neo-Nazi trying to stay on the straight and narrow via support groups and sobriety. Once a drummer for a death metal band led by the man (Jordan Mullins’ Helvete) who molded his and best friend Anders’ (Quinn Armstrong) rage into hate, he struggles to reconcile the realization that who they were and what they did was wrong against the memory of just how great those days felt. So, he takes a leap of faith to reconnect with Anders in the hopes that they can travel this new path of healing together. He needs to ensure he made the right choice.

Wolves Against the World gives shape to that violent anger that remains inside of Louis through the form of lycanthropy. It conflates white supremacy with the supernatural to make it so the rhetoric of purity and race holds double-meaning with both Nazism and werewolves. It’s actually why Louis was able to leave in the first place. He might have drunk the Kool-aid and done some heinous things, but he was never fully “turned” like Anders. Rather than go back to kill his friend and end the disease (Helvete is already gone), however, his goal is to bring him back into the light.

The parallels Armstrong (who writes and directs as well as stars) makes are intriguing. He connects the dots in ways that allow his theme to shine through, but I’m not certain it ever amounts to much. More than the first chapter of his “Fresh Hell”, this entry feels like the sort of Creepshow piece that inspired the trilogy. It has overt political messaging, creates some memorable shots, and holds about as much substance as one would assume a twenty-to-forty-minute vignette would. Stretching it to eighty, though, is simply too much. The inherent repetition doesn’t compound its resonance. It merely exposes its hollow core.

I’m sure others will disagree. I myself cannot say that I didn’t enjoy the ride. Armstrong’s aesthetic choices alone are worth admission. It just never grabbed me beyond that level of superficiality. I never really felt the guilt and regret demanded of Louis because his arc for redemption isn’t towards those he harmed. No, his journey is to save another man who might also not deserve salvation. It’s a Nazi trying to earn forgiveness from himself by offering it to another Nazi. Maybe that works if you fold in the addiction aspect a bit clearer, but that stuff proves more means to an end here than focal point. Same with the sporadic werewolf genre tropes. The concept is sound, but the execution doesn’t match its potential.

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A scene from WOLVES AGAINST THE WORLD; courtesy of Cranked Up Films.