It’s that time of year again where viewers are flooded with all things relating to Halloween, including an incredible surplus of horror movies. There’s a wide variety of VOD (Video On Demand) horror content for cinephiles to go through, but there’s one in particular that’s caught this website’s attention. It happens to be the new David Hayter written and directed film “Wolves,” but this isn’t a typical werewolf movie.
In “Wolves” we follow Cayden (Lucas Till), a young man with the world at his fingertips. When he discovers that there’s something more going on internally, a beast that’s literally ripped apart his parents, he runs off scared and alone. He begins the road to self-discovery as he finds out not only what he is but where he really belongs in the world.
ShockYa got the chance to speak with David Hayter about the conception and execution of his latest movie. He speaks highly about actors Lucas Till, Jason Momoa and the process of designing the overall looks for the werwolves.
ShockYa: When it comes to “Wolves,” how did you first conceive the premise?
David Hayter: It was a producer friend of mine who came to me and said they wanted to do a werewolf movie. I really didn’t want to do it because it’s a very difficult genre to do well, but I do love the idea of it and the concept of it. So I gave it some thought, and I watched a bunch of terrible werewolf movies and some good werewolf movies and I tried to think of how I could do this in a way that hadn’t been done before and was worth doing. Then I kind of came up with this concept of what if it wasn’t a horror movie? What if it was about him turning into a monster? What if it was more of a hero’s journey, like you were turning into something and you needed to gain control of it. What if I could create something that, by the end of it, people would look at it like a vampire movie and say oh my god, I wish I had that power. You don’t normally empathize with the werewolf character to the point where you want to be that, but hopefully with this it’s a little bit differently presented in a different way. It was a journey of figuring out if I could do this in a way that was fresh and relatable.
ShockYa: The idea of the small controlled town made it feel more self-contained in regards to the subject matter, because the ideas of werewolves living among us seems like such a massive story.
David Hayter: The idea was to kind of try to create a lore for these people that they exist. They’re among us but they stay very, very quiet about it. And so, because I knew that we were going to be shooting in Canada, I could use the beautiful landscapes there to create an isolated town and a place where you wouldn’t necessarily know the secrets of everybody and of course that’s a great movie-making trope that’s been used for a long time. I kind of looked at this film as a western in a way. Strange kid in a strange town.
ShockYa: And it is good to see Lucas Till front and center in this movie. Was it originally a no-brainer when you first met him that he would play the lead?
David Hayter: He came in and auditioned for us a few years before. It took about 6 years to get the movie up and running, and the first time he came in, he was so young. He was 19 years old, and he was tall but he still had that deep voice. He hadn’t quite grown into his skin yet, and then by the movie came around again, his career had taken off and he sort of filled out a bit as a man. He was 21-22, and it felt like it came together at just the right time, for where he was at in his development. I wanted somebody who was sort of bridging that divide between being a boy and a man. I met with Taylor Kitsch at one point but he was already a man. He was a big dude. It really worked out in an ideal way. I think Lucas is such a star and he’s got so much talent and confidence and he’s a really decent kid with a good head on his shoulders. It was just a joy working with him.
ShockYa: Yeah I wouldn’t be able to see Taylor Kitsch in that role. It would be harkening back to 80s casting, hiring twenty somethings to play high schoolers.
David Hayter: Exactly. It would undercut the thread of it. I love Taylor. He’s obviously an incredible actor and superstar, but he was just too much of a man at the time and Lucas was just becoming a man and that was perfect.
ShockYa: It’s so difficult to perfect the physical look of werewolves in movies without having come off as too borderline cheesy. How was the process nailing down the werewolf look? How long did that take?
David Hayter: We did years of sketches, designs. It took me a long time to refine what I wanted out of it. I looked at pretty much every werewolf movie ever made. I said okay, where are the places, where are the traps in this creature. Big pointed ears that stick straight up kind of look like elf ears to me. A long snout looks like a big nose, and the long fingernails can look like those of a transvestite. If you look, you’ll see the ears on my wolves, which were made by Academy award winning master monster creators. The ears go back instead of up. They’re angled back, which gives the wolf a sleeker look, but it also calls to mind when a wolf is angry or a dog is angry, their ears flatten back against their skull and gives them a more threatening look. And then the claws, instead of long, straight claws they’re curved. They’re hooked, like wolf claws are so that they can dig into your skin and hold you. So there were a number of ways that we went about the design, and then we also were very careful not to put too much stuff across the actor’s face, so that the prosthetic is glued down to the face where the face is going to move, so it allows them to act or to emote in a way that is not obstructed by all the latex and fur.
It was really a matter of trying to discover what wolves are all about rather than classic movie werewolves. Let’s say that actual wolves are quiet and beautiful and sleek and intelligent. They’re not crazy, out-of-control monsters like they’re usually portrayed, so that helped out a lot.
ShockYa: Speaking of crazy creatures, let’s talk about the leader of the wolf group, played by Jason Momoa, a man loved by many ladies out there.
David Hayter: Yes, the ladies are especially fond of Jason Momoa. I’ve never felt so invisible as when I walked into a bar with that guy. He’s 6’5, got 250 pounds of solid muscle and is a very, very imposing dude. Now he didn’t audition. I got a call from his agency expressing interest. I just knew who he was and we can’t do better than that.
ShockYa: What’s the one thing that you hope people take out of watching “Wolves” the most?
David Hayter: I hope that people get something new out of this genre, sub-genre, and I hope that it speaks to them. I hope that they find it to be really fun, cool and sexy and action packed and just hope they appreciate the years of work and love that went into it.
“Wolves” is out on VOD now.