Starring Olivier Martinez, Agnes Bruckner and Hugh Dancy Directed by Katja Von Garnier U.S. Box Office: $3,525,161 Rated PG-13 Release Date 2007

Set in modern day Romania, Vivian is different and not just because her and her entire family are werewolves. There is a tradition among her kind, that the leader of the pack, Gabriel, must chose a new wife every seven years, and Vivian is to be next. There is a prophecy that states that there is one among them that will bring ‘a new hope and age of enlightenment’ among the clan but Vivian wants nothing to do with it. One night while she is out and about town, she meets an American artist named Aiden. He is immediately infatuated with her but she knows she can’t get involved because of the plans and expectations her family has for her. He, of course, won’t take no for an answer and the conflict begins.

You might be saying, ‘really? A werewolf movie?” But trust me on this, the story is great, the movie has an interesting take on the whole werewolf legend that makes it not the ‘same old-same old’ usual tale. There is depth and back story to all of the main characters, which of course, makes it more interesting and gets the audience more involved with them. There’s good action and suspense but not too much, not enough to make this an action movie, which is a good thing here. The location of the film is shot incredibly well and it gives the movie it’s intriguing feel. There’s even some twist and turns in this that I promise you won’t see coming. My only complaint about the movie is Aiden’s loyality to a girl he just met. The story doesn’t really give much of a reason for him to be chasing after Vivian the way he does but it’s nothing I couldn’t get past. The rest of the movie makes up for it, trust me.

This movie came out of nowhere for me. Even though it was theatrically released not even two years ago, no one I’ve talk to has even heard of it. I just happened to stumble across it one day while browsing the DVDs at the video library at my work. It’s a needle in a hay stack for sure and one not to miss.

Film Grade: A-