The highest-rated live-action video game movie on Metacritic is an overlooked horror-comedy of 2021

For those who have only known their existence with home game consoles, it may be strange to realize that the video game movie genre is still very young. The first film based on a pre-existing video game was Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel’s film, which was discredited by studio interference Adaptation of “Super Mario Bros.” A massive failure at the box office, prompting studios to hit the brakes on future forays into the new genre. While the budget-produced 1995 “Mortal Kombat” movie made a huge profit for New Line, video game movies weren’t considered blockbusters by studios until “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” grossed $275 million worldwide in 2001. The floodgates opened the following year. decade, but the films were, with very few exceptions (Paul W. S. Anderson’s first “Resident Evil” film And Christoph Ganz’s “Silent Hill,” which is as bad as movies get.

The video game film turns 32 years old this year, and it’s surprising that you can count on your hands the number of films in the genre that don’t belong in the trash can. Why have filmmakers failed so miserably at making watchable cinema, let alone making great cinema from a medium that can, at its best, be as immersive as losing yourself in a classic novel? Prominent filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro and Gore Verbinski have been linked to live-action big-screen adaptations of games like “Halo” and “BioShock,” but those games are mostly first-person shooters with pedestrian narratives. People would rather play these games than watch a filmmaker replicate the first-person experience through realistic visual effects. The movie “Doom” tried to do that, and there’s a reason why we don’t talk about “Doom” anymore.

Are there any really great video game movies? According to review aggregator Metacritic, there is at least one very good review.

With a metascore of 66Josh Rubin’s Werewolves Inside is currently the best-reviewed video game movie of all time – and that’s right! Based on Ubisoft’s 2016 social deduction VR game, this adaptation, written by Mishna Wolf, is bloody, witty fun. Sam Richardson plays a forest ranger tasked with policing a small community torn apart by a dispute over an intrusive pipeline. Richardson is greeted coldly by the locals, but finds a sympathetic ear in the perky mailwoman played by Milana Vayntrub (known as Lily in countless AT&T commercials). Soon, Richardson and the townspeople are forced to deal with an apparent werewolf who is hunting them down one by one.

“The Werewolves Within” is brutal gossip “Idea” by Jonathan Lane As well as his spiritual brother “hot fuzz” And “The Wicker Man.” The cast delivers all the right eerie notes, while Wolff’s super-clever screenplay keeps you guessing until the final lycanthrope reveal. It all works thanks to Robin’s deft direction, who, like Edgar Wright in Shaun of the Dead, strikes the perfect balance between the horrific and the goofy. Although I’ve never personally played the game before, its clever mystery-solving premise makes a movie adaptation far more perfect than, say, “Fortnite.”

Unfortunately, “Werewolves Inside” wasn’t as popular as those aforementioned titles, so it didn’t get the budget or commercial push afforded to “Sonic the Hedgehog” or “Angry Birds.” If you haven’t seen it before, it’s available now Discover it on Shudder. Stop depriving yourself of happiness and get it!