A werewolf and human love story adapted from a young adult novel by Annette Curtis Klause which has been reset from the US to Romania, is actually a decently enjoyable popcorn film. The film itself is very well shot with gorgeous cinematography, and a well done dissolve/glow/morph to show the wolf transformation, and I like how the human werewolves seem to be bad ass humans who know parkour martial arts, always jumping around, though they do seem less powerful as wolves, but I love that real wolves were used instead of the inevitable digital which would have been used in the US. Sure the story is simple, and the prophecy stuff never gets explained, just mentioned at first, and then you know what it is, but you never get too much info on it (wonder if there were more books in the series). The film is a B horror film, and is strangely all in English though set in Europe, but overall it works, and I enjoyed the film even if it has nothing deep to it. It does sound like they changed allot from the book, which I am sure I would not have liked, but not having read the book I can say it is a decent enough cheesy horror/romance film.

A young girl is playing in the woods in the US, and leads a hunting party to the house. Her family helps her escape, but they are killed, and we cut to 10 years later, when the girl is 19 years and named Vivian (Agnes Bruckner). Vivian is a loup-garoux or werewolf, who has move to Bucharest, Romania to live with her aunt Astrid (Katja Riemann) who runs a chocolate shop under where they live, and Vivian helps cook, and delivers, which is her favorite thing, to run. Astrid’s former mate is the leader of the werewolf pack named Gabriel (Olivier Martinez) and they have a headstrong son named Rafe (Bryan Dick) who thinks he is hot stuff, and breaks the laws of the clan by hunting on his own. Gabriel gets to chose a new mate from the pack every 7 years, and that is about up, and it is known that he will pick Vivian, who he believes is part of a prophecy about a female from the line of leaders that will lead them to an age of hope. One night Vivian breaks into a locked church that celebrates the loupe-garoux she meets a human artist named Aiden (Hugh Dancy) who is using the story of the loupe-garoux as inspiration for his next graphic novel. Aiden likes her right away, and keeps following her whenever he sees her, though she runs, but finally figures out where the chocolate shop, she goes out with him, and they two fall for each other, but they are discovered by Rafe and his four friends who report it to Gabriel, and he orders Rafe to make Aiden leave.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Rafe sends Aiden a not pretending to be Vivian, and meets him in a church outside the city, where he threatens Aiden, but Aiden throws Rafe and cuts him, revealing his golden eyes and that he is a loupe-garoux. Rafe then tries to kill Aiden, but Aiden uses a silver necklace and silver is poison to loupe-garoux, and it kills Rafe. Vivian runs into Aiden, but realizing what she is, he runs from her.

Gabriel and Astrid and devastated, so Aiden is hunted down at a train station, and the pack sets out to hunt him, as they do once a month, only hunting in a pack to sate their blood lust. The human is told he will be free if he makes it across the river, and they cut him so they can smell the blood, and have Vivian kiss him, then try to lock her in a car, but she gets out. The loupe-garoux give chase, changing into wolves, but Aiden makes a blood trail before getting to a stream where he washes off the blood, and manages to kill a few loupe-garoux with a hidden silver knife.

Aiden actually makes it across the river, but Gabriel keeps hunting, only being knocked back when the white wolf of Vivian attacks him and knocks him in the water, but Aiden cuts her with the knife, poisoning her, and making her change back. The two go and hide in an old film company, where there is much silver nitrate from the film, which is poison to loupe-garoux, but since she is already poisoned. Astrid shows up to kill Aiden, and Vivian begs for his life, as her only love, which Astrid has already lost, and she lets them go.

They head to a human pharmacist who has a cure for silver, but while she gets it, he sets off an alarm. Vivian and Aiden split, and he takes the gun with silver bullets that the Pharmacist had, and follows Vivian who gets taken by Gabriel and his minions. Aiden attacks and come in through a skylight, and ends up confronting Gabriel, but loses the gun, which Vivian gets. She doesn’t want to kill him until he goes for Aiden, when she shoots. She then releases the younger loupe-garoux, and goes to leave with Aiden, but as they drive through the town, the other loupe-garoux show their throats, an act of submissions, because she has killed Gabriel and is now the head of the pack having killed gabriel, and I guess her relationship is the one bringing hope.

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As I said the cinematography and simple but decent effects are what bring this above typical crappy horror films.