LATE PHASES

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2014 | 18 | Blu-ray

Director Adrián García Bogliano

Cast Nick Damici, Tom Noonan,

Lance Guest, Tina Louise

“People don’t come to places like this to live,” says blind combat veteran Ambrose Mckinley, recently turfed into retirement community Crescent Bay. “They come here to die.”

Death in this case arrives in a flesh-shredding frenzy. Crescent Bay is being stalked by a werewolf which leaves blood-spattered Zimmer frames in its wake. Before long Ambrose is loading up with silver bullets before the next bad moon rises…

Boasting a spiky script and a strong, authentic performance by Nick Damici, Late Phases is an indie horror with heart – and one with a refreshingly different protagonist. Ambrose is a vivid character from the off, a taciturn bad-ass looking for a heroic exit strategy before the realities of old age claim him.

Effects are old-school practical, with a valiant stab at a transformation scene in the long shadow of American Werewolf. Yes, the low budget means there’s an endearing goofiness to the shaggy-suited lycanthropes – one glimpse of the creature teeters on the edge of a cheap laugh. But the film’s essential sincerity more than compensates, with emotion prioritised over the scares.

Extras Commentary by director Adrián García Bogliano; a compact Making Of (14 minutes); an exhaustive fly-on-the-wall look at the werewolf effects (30 minutes); trailer. Nick Setchfield