Models VS Werewolves, the latest Full Moon Features' release, is a dull disappointment of filmmaking
- Jacob Harper
- 20 hours ago
- 4 min read
Last weekend, at the annual Texas horror convention Texas Frightmare Weekend, I had the chance to attend the world premiere of the latest Full Moon Features' release, Models VS Werewolves. Many seasoned genre fans may recall Full Moon Features for their work in low budget horror films, with some of their biggest hits being the Puppet Master franchise, Evil Bong, The Gingerdead Man and other straight to video campy horror flicks. The company's history in practical effects-driven fun is what made this film so much more disappointing than I could have anticipated for reasons I'll get into shortly.
The film is written and directed by Danny Draven (Reel Evil, Patient Seven, Bad CGI Gator) who also serves as the film's editor. The film stars Alexa Reddy (The Last Seance, The Silent Scream), Hannah Hueston (Minnie's Midnight Massacre, Deadly Cheer Mom), Rebecca Stoughton (Pretty Miss Lolly, Bad CGI Gator), Bella Mraz (The Mask One: Faceless, Broomstick Ave), Sarah Moliski (Project MKHEXE, Livestream) , Sophie Swiszcz (Fake$, Luderdale) and Dee Wallace (Cujo, The Howling, The Hills Have Eyes, E.T).
Models VS Werewolves follows a group of young models and beauty influencers setting out for a weekend getaway in a remote cabin in the hoods, rented from an Airbnb host played by Dee Wallace. The main characters are all played decently by their respective actresses, with the standouts being Hannah Hueston as Nikki and Rebecca Stoughton as Eileene. However, there's only so much a good performance can do from a subpar script like this. Hardly any of the characters are different from one another in terms of dialogue and character traits. Save for a few chuckle worthy lines, the film's script falls flat on both the horror and the comedy.
Speaking of the actual horror at hand, the film's werewolves were mostly, if not entirely AI generated. Even the werewolf transformation scenes, the centerpiece of any great lycanthrope film, are done in the laziest way possible with what is so obviously glossy and off-putting AI, removing any charm one can expect from a indie werewolf flick. That's the real tragedy in all of this. On paper, a cheesy and low budget werewolf flick from the studio that made the stop motion practical effects driven Puppet Master and Evil Bong movies sound like the perfect beer and pizza schlock-fest. However, with the painfully hard to look at and boring AI-generated werewolves, any hope for fun is out the window. This sentiment of contempt for the audience is double downed when you see that most of the death scenes reuse the same (likely AI-generated) animation.
The use of AI doesn't stop there though; this film is littered with it. Even the opening credits, a montage of each our characters modeling careers, showing them on perfume ads, posters, etc. is completely AI-generated. This in particular stuck out to me as immensely lazy. Even the most amateur filmmaker could've actually shot that sequence and it would've looked better than what we're given here. Even insert shots of roads and the woods are at times so obviously AI-generated. I would bet the amount of time actually spent shooting things amounted to about a week.
When I heard rumors of this film using AI, I was concerned, but for it to be used this excessively and blatantly in front of the audience eyes is something I cannot grasp, especially since the film's script actually makes quite a few jokes about how incompetent and dumb AI and chatbots are, but then turns around and uses it for the majority of making the film, save for a few brief moments of actually filmmaking and practical makeup effects.
Overall, Models VS Werewolves is not only a bad horror film, but quite possibly one of the worst I've seen in quite some time. It takes any of the fun that should come with a cheesy werewolf B-movie and dilutes it with its laziness to actually create the werewolves themselves and inability to make you at least have fun when watching. I mean, what's the point of making a low budget horror film without the cherished imperfections throughout? To see such a staple in the independent horror film industry, the people behind such practical effects driven pieces, take such a nosedive into AI-generated filmmaking is disappointing to say the least. Before the film started, producer Charles Band came out and said they were planning on releasing ten films this year, with many people in the audience wondering how they'd pull off such a feat. Well, if this is any indication of what the future of Full Moon Features looks like, I think we have our answer.
Models VS Werewolves is expected to be available to stream sometime in Summer 2026.
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