It’s been five years since we said goodbye to the residents of Beacon Hills and the majority of its cast moved onto bigger projects allowing them to become household names. Bringing all these characters together again and having them moved from teens to adulthood was a big gamble to see if fans would return and accept their old favourites as different people. Fortunately, the gamble paid off as Teen Wolf : The Movie exists as a reunion for fans to reconnect with the characters they love with director Russell Mulcahy getting series writer Jeff Davis to helm the script. Fans of the show never recovered from Allison’s death in season three and bringing her back for the movie pays off, as it allows for each character to relive their relationship with her and for the film to be warranted.
Set 15 years after the season finale of the show, Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) the alpha of the pack of werewolves, banshees, werecats, hellhounds, and kitsunes is reliving moments of Allison’s death in a series of visions. Having now moved away from Beacon Hills and running an animal shelter, Scott heads back to his hometown where he is reunited with his pack Lydia (Holland Roden) the corporate mogul, Malia (Shelley Hennig) and Parrish (Ryan Kelley) are still on and off again and working with Sheriff Stilinski (Linden Ashby).
Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin) and his now teenage son Eli (Vince Mattis) are working on their complicated relationship and Eli’s acceptance of being a werewolf. When Allison shows back up in the hospital after being resurrected by the pack who are convinced that their visions are a cry for help from the afterlife, things take a turn as the Nogitsune (from season 3) has a plan to kill the entire pack and destroy the world.
The strength of Teen Wolf was in its eclectic roster of supernatural creatures heralded as heroes. The pack’s unrelenting dedication to protecting those who cannot protect themselves from danger and evil combined with teenage love and dramatics is what made this show stand out amongst the many other supernatural teen shows of its time. It is no different here, while the characters have moved away and become adults, they slip right back into their character’s protector roles, and of course, the soapy style dramatics kick right into gear as well.
For fans of the series, this is the exact style you want from this project. The winks and nods to characters that didn’t return like Dylan O’Brien’s Stiles Stilinski are mentioned and given enough of a mention to delight fans of the series. Unfortunately, if you are not deep in Teen Wolf the TV show’s lore you may feel left behind as these moments happen often and provide no background as to what is happening or why (apart from Allison’s death) so beware that if you are coming into this fresh, you may feel lost at times during this movie.
It’s clear the budget from Paramount Plus is significantly higher than the TV show was allotted when it was on MTV and this shines through, giving the world a truly cinematic feel needed to cross over into film territory. Regrettably, some of the CGI is a little shaky still but is still miles ahead of what it was back in 2015. It appears the majority of the money was saved for the final showdown which looks absolutely spectacular. If you can watch it on the biggest screen you can find, taking place on a football field, it has a grand cinematic scope that deserves to be seen on the big screen.
Teen Wolf : The Movie does a fantastic job of reuniting the cast of the original show (well the majority of them) and justifying its existence. Bringing back Allison warrants the pack reuniting in Beacon Hills for one more adventure. While this could definitely have been another season of the show, packing in a big budget and elevating the show to be more cinematic has given fans the reunion they have been looking for.
Newcomers to the series may feel a little lost as the fan service goes a little too hard at times, but you can still follow the main story and like me, encourage you to watch the TV series. The themes of love, family and relationships shine through in this epic story from Davis who magically makes this a must-see event.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Teen Wolf : The Movie is now streaming on Paramount Plus.
