I must say that the story and film was better than I anticipated. I was expecting pretty much a slash fest and, although admittedly there are some violent scenes in the film, the story and suspense take up a lot of the screen time which was nice to see. The development of the characters is also nicely handled.

The movie is set in an atmospheric medieval village called Dagger Horne. Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) has known Peter (Shiloh Fernandez) since they were children. They are in love and want to be together but her parents have arranged for a marriage to a young man named Henry (Max Irons) who can give Valerie more worldly goods. When a relative dies at the hands of the werewolf, the picture focuses on finding the guilty culprit. Enter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), a man who has had experiences with werewolves before as he had to kill one who wound up being someone very close to him. The plot does an effective job in arousing the audience’s curiosity as to just who the werewolf really is. Is it Valerie’s grandmother? Is it Peter or Henry? The answer to the mystery is forthcoming but is not easily solved.

Despite the suspenseful plot and some romance (which no doubt the young girls will enjoy) the movie falls short of receiving our Dove Seal due to two content areas, the sexual and violence content. Both registered a three, not missing the mark to be family-approved by much, but still outside of Dove’s family-friendly guidelines. It’s too bad because it would have been nice being able to recommend it. Check out the content listing below.