Genre: Horror/Supernatural/Romance
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: Roy Horne
Based on the 1994 film
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Anya Taylor-Joy, Karl Glusman, Richard E. Grant, Claire Danes, Lennie James, Desmond Harrington, Jena Malone, Christopher Heyerdahl
Plot: Film executive Will Randall (Bradley Cooper) attends the Hollywood premiere of the latest film he shepherded only to find it is lambasted by critics and audiences alike. He walks out of the movie early, too embarrassed to see his name in the end credits. On his way home, he stops at a liquor store and buys a bottle of alcohol. He drinks the bottle as he continues his drive home through the narrow, winding roads of the Hollywood Hills. Will slams on the brakes when he hits something with his car. He gets out to see what he hit. He finds a pool of blood on the road illuminated by a full moon. Assuming he hit a coyote that ran off, he turns to get back into his car when he is attacked by something. Will manages to fight it off and get back in his car, but not before he is bitten. Once he finally arrives home, his wife Charlotte (Claire Danes) tends to the wound. She suggests that they go to the emergency room in case he has rabies, but Will is more concerned about how the failure of his new film could affect his standing with the studio.
In the morning, Will wakes up and finds that the bite is already mostly healed. Will goes to work at LTD Pictures, a prominent film studio, where the offices are in complete chaos. Will asks his assistant Lucy Morgan (Jena Malone) what on Earth is going on. She tells him that the company has been purchased by billionaire Raymond Alden who is making a visit to the offices any minute. Will sits at his desk when he notices that his former assistant/protege Stewart Lyman (Karl Glusman) is looking at him, smiling, from across the floor. Will pretends he doesn't notice and looks away just in time to see a beautiful woman, Laura Alden (Anya Taylor-Joy), exiting the elevators. She asks for Will by name and is escorted to his office. Will asks who she is, and she tells him that she is Raymond Alden's daughter. She explains that her father is a difficult man to track down, but she knew he was planning on coming by the studio soon, so she decided that she would meet him here. Laura points out a bit of blood on Will's shirt. He checks and finds that the bite mark is bleeding. Laura helps clean the wound with a towel. Laura appears to become aroused by the sight of the blood when her father Raymond Alden (Richard E. Grant) enters Will's office. Raymond is surprised to see Laura there and asks her to excuse he and Will as they have business to discuss. As soon as Laura leaves the office, Raymond informs Will that based on his recent box office performance, he has decided to demote him from his position as President of Development at LTD Pictures, down to Vice President, and promote Stewart Lyman to take his place instead.
When Will leaves the office for the day, he finds Laura sitting on the hood of his car in the parking garage. She asks him how the front of his car got damaged, and he tells her that he hit a coyote or wolf with his car before it bit him. Laura then asks Will if her father fired him or just demoted him, and Will tells her that he was demoted. She says that her father has a tendency to make such moves, but that he is willing to reverse course with the right convincing. Laura gets off Will's car and suggests he get someone to look at his bite wound.
Will arrives at home and begins to experience heightened senses. The television seems deafeningly loud. When he complains about it to his wife Charlotte, she comes over to him and asks if everything is alright. He smells a distinctive scent on her, but can't quite place it. At work, Will catches the same scent on Stewart, leading Will to believing Charlotte and Stewart are having an affair. During a company meeting, Stewart complains that movie star Jack Chaney has turned down the leading role in their next film.
Will tracks down Laura and tells her that his wife is cheating on him with Stewart, the guy who stole his job. Laura asks how he found her, and Will jokes that he has a nose for things like that it seems. She invites him in for a drink, but Will notices the time and tells her that he has an appointment for a doctor to look at his bite mark, as Laura had suggested. In the office of Dr. Halvorson (Christopher Heyerdahl), Will gets his wound inspected by the doctor. Will thinks it is a coyote bite, but Halvorson says that the bite pattern seems closer to a wolf than a coyote even though they are much more rare in Southern California. Will describes his sensory changes and asks if he could have rabies. Halvorson says that they are not symptoms of rabies, but that he can give him a shot just in case.
In his office, Will is visited by Detective Bellamy (Lennie James) who asks him about his car crash the other night. Will describes driving home from the movie premiere and hitting a coyote or wolf in the road and immediately slamming on his brakes. Bellamy asks Will if he's heard of the "Full Moon Slasher" and Will says it sounds vaguely familiar although he doesn't have much time for the news. Bellamy tells Will that the latest victim was less than a block away from Will's crash, so he was hoping that maybe Will had seen someone fleeing the scene or acting suspiciously. Will tells the detective that nothing stands out in his mind.
Will barges into Raymond Alden's office and demands his job back. Ever the pragmatist, Raymond asks what Will can offer him that Stewart can't. Will says he can get the biggest movie star on the planet, Jack Chaney, to sign on to their latest project. Intrigued, Raymond tells Will that if he can pull that off they can talk about it.
After another full moon, Will wakes up on his balcony covered in blood. He has no memory of the night before. He quickly cleans himself up and readies for work. The news all around Los Angeles is abuzz with more brutal killings from the “Full Moon Slasher” last night. That night over dinner, Will tells Charlotte that he can smell Stewart on her. Charlotte becomes flummoxed and confesses to her affair with Stewart. Will packs a bag and leaves the house. He shows up at Laura’s hotel room. As soon as she opens the door for him, Will passionately kisses her. Kissing soon turns to sex, with Will showing more of an animal side to his personality in bed, much to Laura’s enjoyment.
Reinvigorated from his night with Laura, Will shows up at the mansion of movie star Jack Chaney (Desmond Harrington). Will can smell drugs in the house and hints at this to Chaney. With a combination of animal magnetism and the hint of potential blackmail, Will convinces Chaney to sign a three film contract with LTD Pictures. When news of the deal breaks, Raymond gives Will his old position back. As his first act back in charge, Will fires Stewart from the company. Furious, Stewart tells Will this won’t be the last they see of each other. Will jokes to his assistant Lucy that he hopes that isn’t true and asks her to have security escort Stewart off of the property.
Will visits Dr. Halvorson again, describing his increased senses and lost time. Halvorson says that those still aren’t rabies symptoms and that perhaps he should see a psychiatrist. Will asks Halvorson if he believes in werewolves, under the guise of it being for a film project for the studio. Halvorson explains that in his home country of Norway, there are many Norse legends of such creatures, of men turning into wolves or bears under the light of a full moon, and of women turning into beings called maras that bring upon nightmares in those asleep.
Everything is going well for Will as he continues to see Laura until he learns of the next full moon. Worried, Will asks Laura to handcuff him to the bed. Believing it just to be a sexual request, Laura handcuffs Will to the bed and begins straddling him. As the full moon rises, Will begins to transform while having sex with Laura. As they climax together, Will, now in wolf form, bites Laura’s neck.
Will wakes up in the morning to find himself still handcuffed with Laura asleep next to him. They are both covered in blood. She asks him what the hell went on last night, and Will confesses matter-of-factly that he thinks he is a werewolf.
Det. Bellamy stops Will as he is leaving the hotel and taken into custody for questioning. Bellamy asks Will what he knows about his wife’s murder. Will expresses confusion, not knowing that Charlotte has been murdered since he moved out recently. Bellamy says that it has all the signs of the Full Moon Slasher: brutal killings with canine DNA found at the scene. Will is surprised about the canine DNA, and Bellamy says that they kept that tidbit out of the press to weed out the wackos confessing to the murders. Bellamy says that it seems awfully coincidental that Will was at the scene of one of the murders and now the victim is Will’s estranged wife. Will says he was with Laura Alden all night and suggests that if he doesn’t believe him to check the hotel lobby security footage.
As Laura is leaving the hotel, she is attacked by Stewart. Laura manages to fight him off, slashing him with a knife she keeps in her purse. She then runs back into the lobby and asks the front desk to call the police. Laura reports the incident to the police, telling them that Stewart Lyman is her attacker.
At Will’s office, he finds a dead rabbit on his desk when he arrives. He asks Lucy to call the police for him. Det. Bellamy arrives, telling Will that he insisted on handling the call when he heard who was calling. Bellamy informs Will that he believes he is the Full Moon Slasher and he will eventually catch him - it’s just a matter of time.
The police investigate Stewart Lyman’s house after Laura’s assault report. They are shocked at what they find: blood everywhere, trophies from the homes of each victim of the Full Moon Slasher, and even copious amounts of canine DNA. Det. Bellamy is called to the scene and is surprised that he was wrong about Will Randall. He orders an APB on Stewart Lyman, urging everyone that he is dangerous.
With another full moon on the way, Will and Laura head to his isolated beach house up the coast. He figures that a trip away from civilization will be for the best. He adds that Stewart shouldn’t be able to find them up there. The sun is beginning to set when they arrive. Fearing a transformation, Will has Laura chain him to a wall. As the full moon rises over the coast, Will begins to transform. Outside, Stewart also transforms into a werewolf. Will and Laura hear a howl outside. Will tells her to hide. Stewart bursts through the window of the house and attacks Laura. He chases her through the house as Will tries to free himself to defend her. Finally Will manages to break the chains holding him back. He attacks Stewart from behind, wrapping the chain around his neck, choking him to death. Will, still in full werewolf form, looks at Laura as her eyes begin to glow yellow. She tells him that she can hear police cars off in the distance.
During another full moon, Will and Laura, both now werewolves, howl at the moon together.
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