On The Air: Werewolf by Night (2022)

 In its first special presentation for Disney+, Marvel Studios takes viewers into a darker corner of the Marvel Universe.

Werewolf by Night is a homage to the horror movies of the golden age that we saw as youth on cable, including the original "Wolf-Man", with Lon Chaney, Jr., and "Werewolf of London", with Warren Hull & Warner Oland. Filmed in black & white as a tribute to that era, the story takes Jack Russell (Gael Garcia Bernal) into a bizarre variation on The Most Dangerous Game, which has Russell and other monster hunters, including 2nd generation hunter Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly, The Nevers), locating the bloodstone gem, currently bonded to the Man-Thing.

Check the trailer:

The CGI rendering of Man-Thing blows away the cheap DTV model released in 2005, having aired at least once on SyFy (when it was still Sci-Fi). I think the decision was made to reboot Russell as being of Hispanic descent in order to mash up Russell with Jake Gomez, the Hispanic/Native American Werewolf introduced last year at Marvel, when the producers decided not to use Gomez as a stand-alone character. Maybe another day.

This does, however, open the door for other Marvel horror properties, including their adaptations of Frankenstein & Dracula, to be added to the expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Rating: A-.