THE CULT OF KIM NEWMAN
The critic and novelist selects the month’s weirdest home-ent releases
TWO COLUMNS AGO, I rounded up recent vampires. Now, it’s the turn of perennial poor-monster-relation, the werewolf.
The high concept of Patrick Rea’s I Am Wolf (formerly I Am Lisa) is I Spit On Your Grave mashed up with Ginger Snaps. Shy, bespectacled Lisa (Kristen Vaganos) runs foul of thugs who are protected by interesting, crooked female sheriff Deborah (Manon Halliburton).
Roughed-up, raped and dumped in the woods, Lisa survives wolfen mauling and is nursed back to health by mystery wise woman Mary (Cinnamon Schultz). Made over as a clear-sighted, confident, fanged and taloned werewolf, she starts revenge-ripping through the ranks of the villains. Vaganos is excellent as the put-upon doormat who becomes a sleek, sexy, killer beastess, and the film offers a nice collision of woodland folklore and small-town corruption.