It's Over, Sharktopus! Felicia Day Delivers in SyFy Movie, But...

When SyFy announced it was making movies based on fairy tales, but with a much darker tone, some had to wonder if it was making MST3K fodder...considering it used to have that show.
The first one, Beauty and the Beast, which included a witch who wanted to take over a kingdom by turning the prince into a beast, and a sexy heroine wearing a dress that was bit too short for that time.
Fodder for the angry bots!

Then we hear Felicia Day is going to do her version of "Little Red Riding Hood", only she battles Big Bad Werewolves.
This try, at least, is much better.
Day is a capable heroine as Virgina "Red" Sullivan, who's part of a family of werewolf hunters. They even had to wipe out a nearby town when it was turned by werewolves.
So, when she bring in a guy named Nathan (Kavan Smith) to meet the family, they're not too sure they can handle welcoming someone new. He's equally skeptical about her claim that they hunt werewolves.
An ill-advised walk in the woods by Nathan that night changes all that. He meets a creepy guy named Gabriel (Stephen McHattie), who turns out to be a new breed of werewolf. He can change whenever he likes, and he's telepathic.
He also bites Nathan. Red and her brothers Jake and Marcus don't notice, but they have to tell him everything.
They mention the rules of werewolf hunting: silver kills them, but someone who has been bitten can escape the curse if he kills the one who bit him, and before the turned one kills anyone else.
Red should know. Her grandfather had that experience.
So what's a werewolf hunter to do when she does find out Nathan has been bitten? Can he be saved?
Meanwhile, Gabriel is playing The Most Dangerous Game, capturing tourists who may get killed or turned by werewolves.

There are very long scenes of Jake and Marcus looking for werewolves. Red kills a couple of werewolves, but doesn't have much to do, until tragedy strikes in a big way.

It's best to approach this movie as if this is a variation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This time, though, it's about a warrior who would like a life that's more normal, and how her destiny won't allow it.
Also, the movie gives out too much information in the first 20 minutes. It would have been better for Nathan to settle in, but also wonder why Red's brothers hunt at night. Then after the second commercial break, he'd get bitten by Gabriel.
Also, the CGI is, well, kind of strange. The "change" from human to wolf is weird, along with how they move from a distance. But this is cable TV.
The story was more interesting than most SyFy movies, and Day does a good job here.
Someone suggested it could become a series. The way it ended, I'm not sure, unless it starts with Red getting new powers and some assistance. You'll see what I mean.

All Felicia hopes is that this will beat Sharktopus in the ratings. Maybe it will, but it's already way ahead of Mega Python vs. Gateroid, the first SyFy movie that sounds more like the main event at Wrestlemania...and that doesn't even include the prospective battle between '80s teen idols in that movie. Does this mean we'll have someting similar in 2020? Yikes!

Serenity Movie Weekend: The Mothman of Justice?

When I went to Anaheim Wizard World last week, Jewel Staite talked about her new SyFy Movie, Mothman. She said it's one of those guilty pleasure type of movies, that she hopes will get a bigger audience than Mega-Piranha.

We're not sure if that will happen, but the movie turned out to be a weird hybrid between I Know What You Did Last Summer and Charles Bronson's character in Death Wish.

How? Well, let's start with the "I Know What You Did..." part: a bunch of teens, including Katie (played by Jewel), tease the younger brother of one of the group about the Mothman. As a result, they wind up drowning the brother, and Katie is forced in the coverup. Ten years later, she's a feature reporter for a weekly newspaper in Washington D.C. She's assigned to Point Pleasant, West Virginia to visit the annual Mothman Festival. We'll give you one guess where Katie is from.

Of course, the events of ten years ago take a toll on the old gang. It's not long before the dreaded Mothman emerges from mirrors, mobile home surfaces and even TV screens to kill off Katie's friends. The creature itself reminded me one a monster from Scooby-Doo, or a creepy grey ghost with moldy wings. It's a mothman, right?
Also, the movie sets up the whole plot in 20 minutes, as if it's late for an appointment. A little more development would have been nice. These guys may be guilty but they're people, not targets.

Jewel does a good job as the reporter forced to face her past. She does have her moment when she goes all Ellen Ripley on the Mothman, but does she escape its vengeance?

I do have to say that someone else steals this movie, only because he has an extensive history with the Mothman. Jerry Leggio is great at blind Frank Waverly, who knows a lot about the Mothman and how he goes after those who have escaped justice. That's why I suggest the Mohtman may be like Charles Bronson. Too bad they had to make Frank a little too crazy towards the end, even if he did have the backstory to explain it.

Another weird moment is when Derek (Connor Fox) bursts into the local beauty shop, tells everyone to leave, and starts breaking mirrors so the Mothman won't get them.

It's also interesting the movie adds some details of the original Mothman legend in the 1960's, but I wonder why they decided to make it a vigilante, and also the spirit of an Indian chief tortured by settlers in the 19th Century.

Looking at this movie, I wonder how Red with Felicia Day will play out. Will she go from werewolf hunter to werewolf? I hope not. Her character could be a Syfy series all by itself, even if you add a repentant werewolf.
Yeah, that sounds familiar, but what movie on SyFy doesn't?

SyFy presents "Red": On the other hand....

@GrrAargh, from Twitter, posted me about my take on the SyFy fairy tale called "Red' with Felicia Day as Red Riding Hood, who'll face a bigger problem than getting through the woods and a Big Bad Wolf.
To repeat, in this version, Red presents her fiance to her family of werewolf hunters. He gets bitten by a werewolf, and now he's one, too. Thus, she has to decide whether to protect her fiance, or kill him.
From the entry in Wikipedia GrrArgh pointed out, the familiar story can be interpreted as a girl's maturity to womanhood, a morality tale about talking to strangers, or even more intimate that that, as in The Company of Wolves.

I still think my idea might work, even if it's apparently been used before in other media. In the end, it will be a version of Red Riding Hood with forbidden love and werewolf hunting thrown in the mix. After seeing this Wiki about the story, it may not be too far out as viewers may think. Still, it's still about love or duty, a decision a certain Slayer had to make in Sunnydale 12 years ago. We'll see how SyFy presents this age-old dilemma next year.

Felicia Day is Red Riding Hood, but about the story...

As I was looking over the disappointment Oscar viewers were experiencing from last night, and finding out that Comcast wished they hired better crew members to "upgrade" their cable service, I found out about Felicia Day being part of SyFy's series of movies that re-invent classic fairy tales. A couple of weeks ago, we had Beauty and the Beasts, which had a sexy mini-skirted Estella Warren protecting a beast accused of murder actually being orchestrated by an evil prince and his own beast. Naturally, there's a love story.
Anyway, SciFiWire revealed Felicia Day will be in one of those SyFy Fairy Tales. She'll be Red Riding Hood in Red, only it includes werewolves and forbidden love...for the Twilight crowd. The story is Red Riding Hood introduces her fiance to her family of werewolf hunters. He winds up getting bitten by a werewolf, and she has to decide between love and duty.

For one thing, it sounds like Beauty and the Beasts. Not every SyFy fairy tale has to include a love story. Instead, try this idea...

Red Riding Hood is starting her training as a werewolf hunter. She meets a handsome guy who has a dark edge to him. Of course, she attracted to the guy. Just after he arrives, there's a series of murders, and people turning into werewolves. Of course, Handsome Guy is responsible, but he acts like Red's ally. He even helps her kill some werewolves, just to cover his own tracks. However, he makes the mistake of biting Red's grandma. Thus, the famous "Oh, Grandma, what sharp teeth you have" scene takes on a whole new meaning. It's still between love and duty, but at least she gets to be more heroic when she finally defeats the true wolf in sheep's clothing. This really doesn't need a love story, especially a forbidden one.

There's also a question on whether this will affect the future of The Guild. We're still hoping for a fourth season, as Codex has to deal with the Big Bad Wolf she wound up with at the end of season three. Apparently, though, this will be filmed in Canada soon. This may mean a longer wait than usual for more Guild episodes, but as long as there will be more.

Still, it's a great opportunity for Felicia, and we wish her all the best. I still think my plot is better than SyFy's plot.