“Werewolf by Night” screams as a top streaming special this fall

The MCU scores a fresh new hit with its Disney Plus Halloween Special, “Werewolf by Night,” directed by Michael Giacchino and starring Gael Garcia Bernal as the title character.

Well-known for his iconic music scores from films such as “The Batman,” “Jurassic World,” “Rogue One,” and “The Incredibles” among others, this one-hour special is Giacchino’s first major experience as a director, calling it an “incredibly challenging process,” but one that he loved and enjoyed.

This was Marvel Studio’s first-ever special presentation, focusing on a character that is not a superhero, but a monster.

Before Stan Lee assembled his superhero universe, Marvel Comics told atomic-age monster stories in titles such as “Tales of Suspense” and “Amazing Fantasy.” Surprisingly, these monster tales would serve as starting points for the superhero origins.

For example, Hank Pym, the first Ant-Man, originally starred in a horror story as a shrunken-down scientist running for his life from ants. “The Incredible Hulk,” presented as a monster at first and was inspired by “Frankenstein” and “Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Hyde.”

These types of stories died down due to censorship and the rise of Marvel’s Superhero age in the ‘60s. It wasn’t until the ‘70s that Marvel Studios got back into horror.

With the introduction of villains such as Agatha Harkness and Morbius, and censorship loosening its grip on comics, writers began to create supernatural horror stories.

These feature characters such as the plant-like Man-Thing, Blade the Vampire Hunter, and Jack Russell, the Werewolf by Night. Russell went on adventures fighting characters such as the Living Mummy, Count Dracula, and even Moon Knight.

However, none of these characters would be adapted to the screens until the late 90s and early 2000s, with the introduction of Morbius and Blade in “Spiderman: The Animated Series” (1994) and the latter’s titular “Blade Trilogy” (1998-2004).

After that, most of the concepts for marvel horror adaptations went to development hell, until now.

In the streaming special, Jack Russell is portrayed by Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal. Bernal’s interpretation of the character is that of an experienced monster hunter, and monster, who understands and accepts his alter ego, a contrast to most known werewolf horror stories.

Bernal has even read the character’s comic books and watched werewolf films, in addition to researching the mythology behind werewolves.

“I started to investigate a little bit and started to place it also in a kind of a sociological

anthropological maybe kind of archetype of society, and where do they fit?” Bernal stated in a video chat with Marvel.com.

Aside from Bernal’s lycanthropic predator, there’s another Marvel monster hidden in the special, one that comic book fans will be thrilled to see on screen.

The plot of this 55-minute special revolves around a group of monster hunters invited for a ceremonial kill-or-be-killed hunt that would determine them, owners of a mystic MacGuffin, known as the Bloodstone.

Under Giacchino’s direction, the special made great use of references and special effects done in the classic Universal Monsters era, with a black and white filter, a vintage opening title, a terrifying soundtrack composed by the director himself, and werewolf makeup that echoes the one used in 1941’s “The Wolfman.”

Yet, with all of these effects, the story of Russell in this monster hunt will make you sympathize more with the monsters than the humans themselves, playing on the question of who’s the real “monster” in this horror tale.

After all, this is Marvel we’re talking about. 

Their monsters tend to become heroes in their nature like the Incredible Hulk and the Thing, giants who look terrifying in appearance yet have a voice and identity that connects with readers and watchers alike.

This applies to Bernal’s interpretation of the character, touching on the themes of family legacy and tradition, both as a monster and a monster hunter himself.

Werewolf by Night truly defines and embodies Marvel’s horror underworld hidden from the metropolitan super heroics and intergalactic adventures seen in current films and television.

It can only be hoped that the tone used here will be applied to future works, such as the Blade reboot currently in development for the future phases of the MCU.

It is refreshing to see Marvel expand their content and genre beyond heroes and aliens. 

One can even hope to see these characters crossover with other known characters in later phases, possibly creating the successful shared cinematic universe that Universal failed to adapt with “The Mummy” reboot.

“Werewolf by Night” premiered on Oct. 10 and is only available to watch on Disney Plus.