A film which is the extension of a series, itself adapted from a film. You follow ? After a feature film released in cinemas in 1985 with Michael J. Fox in the title role (then a sequel without him), “Teen Wolf” was resurrected on the small screen from 2011 to 2017, on MTV in the United States. In this production created by Jeff Davis, Tyler Posey played Scott McCall, a high school student who became a werewolf after being bitten in the woods. Over six seasons, he battled various evil creatures, accompanied by his friends, some of whom had fantastic powers themselves.
Success across the Atlantic, the series enjoyed a more confidential audience in France where it was broadcast on MTV, then France 4. However, its return in film form on the Paramount + platform, this Thursday, February 23, is a small event for fans of the franchise. In this new opus, we find Scott McCall, almost fifteen years later. Now thirty, the hero has moved away from his hometown of Beacon Hills and avoids the supernatural world by managing an animal shelter in Los Angeles. But visions of his former girlfriend Allison (deceased in season 3), who seems to be a prisoner of a dimension between life and death, will push him to return to the traces of his past.
Dylan O’Brien, the great absentee
If the hero finds his old comrades in this way, there is a great absentee. The comedian Dylan O’Brien (“the Labyrinth”), whose career has exploded in the meantime, and who played Stiles, Scott’s best friend, did not wish to be part of it. A great loss for fiction, as his character was the most endearing. We must therefore be satisfied with the presence of Tyler Posey (Scott), Tyler Hoechlin (Derek), Holland Roden (Lydia), Shelley Hennig (Malia), Dylan Sprayberry (Liam), or Colton Hayes (Jackson) . The only real bonus is the unexpected return of Crystal Reed as Allison, even though the actress is unrecognizable.
In terms of the script, this film is an opportunity to confront the protagonists with the demons of their past, both literally and figuratively. Sure, the nostalgia works, but it all feels a little warmed up. And if the actors finally embody characters who are the same age as them, one wonders why Malia, for example, always dresses like a teenager. In short, to be reserved for fans of the series.
« Teen Wolf: the movie », American fantasy film written by Jeff Davis and directed by Russell Mulcahy (2023) with Tyler Posey, Tyler Hoechlin, Crystal Reed… 2h20.