Ubisoft’s Annual Women’s Film & Television Fellowship invites women, non-binary, trans, gender-nonconforming and gender-variant people within the entertainment industry to explore it’s extensive library of intellectual property as well as pitch original ideas for possible development. One of Ubisoft’s inaugural fellows was screenwriter and bestselling author, Mishna Wolff (I’M DOWN), who was so intrigued by the company’s social-deduction VR title ‘Werewolves Within’ that she ended up adapting the game into a darkly hilarious horror whodunit which releases this week.
Directed by Josh Ruben (Scare Me), the film transports the audience to the small town of Beaverfield. After a proposed pipeline creates divisions between the locals, and a snowstorm traps everyone inside the local inn, newly arrived forest ranger FINN (Sam Richardson) and postal worker CECILY (Milana Vayntrub) must try to keep the peace and discover the truth behind whoever – or whatever – is terrorising the community.
“As much as this movie is an homage to my love for Hot Fuzz, the Coen Brothers, and Arachnophobia, it’s also about the monster in all of us.” says Ruben, who grew up just a stone’s throw away from where he ended up shooting the film; a town where as a kid, he used to make up monster stories, pretending he was Chief Brody, fighting creatures in the brush.
With ‘Werewolves Within’ having just enjoyed a successful US release and as UK residents will be able to get your claws on a copy on Digital Platforms and DVD from this 19th July via Signature, SCREAM caught up with Ruben who revealed how his love of ’70s and ’80s movies, especially those directed by some chap called Spielberg, played a big influence in his directorial choices and how, at its core, the film is testament to the fact that “being good” is the best weapon we’ve got, against guns, knives, and even claws…
Words: Howard Gorman
