Crescent Bay Retirement Community
With Halloween just over a month away and the leaves starting to turn, I’ve been on a horror kick. Horror films are hit and miss on Netflix and Amazon Prime and I often find myself checking out of a movie before it’s over. Last night, Amazon delivered with Late Phases (sometimes listed as Late Phases: Night of the Lone Wolf). I’m a sucker for werewolf flicks and this film had a really interesting plot that runs a little bit deeper than one might think.
The film stars Nick Damici, best known as both a writer and the star of horror flicks Stake Land and Mulberry Street. Damici portrays Ambrose McKinley, a blind Vietnam veteran who moves into the Crescent Bay Retirement Community to live out his final years. With him is his service dog, Shadow, who helps him get around.
Mild spoilers and a creature test shot reveal ahead!!!!
Ambrose moves into the community with the help of his son, Will (Ethan Embry of Sneaky Pete, Can’t Hardly Wait, Empire Records), who appears to want to help his father but ultimately leaves him to his own devices.
On his first day in his new home, Ambrose meets his neighbor, Delores (Karen Lynn Gorney of All My Children). They become fast friends as the pair lightly flirt with one another. He also discovers a claw rip in his wall and finds a piece of one of the claws left behind. Later on, Ambrose is “welcomed” to the community by a trio of its other residents, Clarissa (Tina Louise of Gilligan’s Island), Emma (Caitlin O’Heaney), and Gloria (Rutanya Alda). The ladies come off as snobbish and Ambrose quickly lets them know that he’s not the kind of person to take much BS from anyone.
As Ambrose settles down for his first evening in the community, he and Shadow are alarmed to loud screams and growling noises from Delores’ side of the duplex. Ambrose bangs on the wall and asks if she’s okay, but soon finds out that a large beast is attacking her. Once it kills Delores, it is attracted to Ambrose’s home by his noise and the barking of Shadow. The beast bursts through the wall and attacks Ambrose. Shadow manages to fight the creature off long enough for Ambrose to find his gun. He fires in the direction of the beast (remember that he’s blind) and manages to scare it away, but not before it manages to mortally wound Shadow.
Ambrose brings Shadow’s body to the local veterinarian to determine what type of creature killed him and the veterinarian tells him that at first glance it could be a dog, but she never comes out and says that it actually is a dog or any other animal. Police investigate the attack on Delores and Ambrose and write it off as “another animal attack” in the community. They tell Ambrose that these attacks are a monthly occurrence and most likely due to the close proximity of the community to the forest. Ambrose immediately believes that he’s dealing with a werewolf.
Ambrose, knowing that he has one month to prepare, sets out to kill the beast. His month long preparation involves getting to know potential suspects such as fellow residents, the local priest named Father Roger (Tom Noonan of The Monster Squad and Robocop 2), and a resident of the community who set up a shuttle service to the church named Mr. Griffin (Lance Guest of The Last Starfighter and Jaws: The Revenge). Ambrose also has silver bullets and one silver shotgun shell made for his guns and creates a booby trap.
As the next full moon approaches, Ambrose amps up his investigation and the werewolf soon realizes that he/she has been discovered. In order to beef up its chance for survival, the werewolf recruits unwilling members of the community to aid it in its battle with Ambrose by turning them into werewolves. Ambrose and the pack square off at the climax of the film. Who is the werewolf? Does Ambrose survive? Do you prefer Ginger or Mary Ann??? While that debate will continue to the end of time, you’ll have to watch Late Phases to find out about the werewolf and Ambrose!
The film works quite well as a traditional werewolf film. The hero uses the tried and true method of silver bullets to battle the creature and while the beast is supernaturally strong, it’s not so strong that it is unbelievable that Ambrose and Shadow could fight it and not be instantly murdered. The person that is the werewolf also shows some slight remorse for their actions, but succumbs to the bloodlust quickly once the change occurs.
The film also takes a subtle look at how the elderly are written off by society. Will has a strained relationship with his father and while appearing to want to assist him on the surface, you can see that he’s really hoping for a way to free himself of the “burden” of his father. Despite monthly brutal murders, the police seem disinterested in investigating the attacks because it’s just crazy old folks that are too weak or too dumb to fight off the wild animal that is attacking them. Even the security guard at the front gate hauls tail once things get furry in the film’s climax.
The cast is excellent, especially Damici and Guest. Damici carries the bulk of the film by himself, with the supporting characters coming into the story to build and frame Ambrose. Damici is believable in the role and while he has a few humorous lines in the film, he never goes in any absurd direction with the character. You’d expect an old guy like Ambrose to act exactly how Damici portrays him in the film.
Despite seeing Lance Guest’s name in the opening credits, it didn’t register with me that he was Griffin until the film ended. He really became that character in the movie.
The creature effects were almost entirely practical with just a few unnoticeable CGI touch ups. The creature’s transformation scene reminded me of An American Werewolf In London and The Company Of Wolves. Its look appeared to be a combination of a lot of werewolves from various films including Dog Soldiers and The Howling.
If you enjoy solid story telling and character development, give Late Phases a shot. It definitely has a few weak moments, but it is still one of the better werewolf films from the last twenty or so years.
As always, thanks for reading. If there are any werewolf flicks out there that you enjoy, let me know about them in the comments. Also, if you’ve seen Late Phases, I’d love to hear your opinion about the film. Ohhhhh! Be sure to let me know if you prefer Ginger or Mary Ann, too!!!!
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