‘Cocaine Werewolf’ Review
Stars: Titus Himmelberger, Brice Kennedy, Jeff Kirkendall, Marie DeLorenzo, Ken Van Sant | Written by Tyger Torrez | Directed by Mark Polonia
Mark Polonia is back with Cocaine Werewolf. But after Cocaine Bear, Cocaine Cougar, Cocaine Roach and Polonia’s own Cocaine Shark, is there anything new that can be done with the creatures on cocaine genre?
The film opens with a lycanthrope on the prowl in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, first interrupting a Little Red Riding Hood-themed photoshoot then, and more importantly, turning up at the scene of a drug deal gone bad and killing the surviving courier (Titus Himmelberger; Jurassic Shark 3: Seavenge, Hell on the Shelf)
As this is happening, Jack (Brice Kennedy; Splatter Beach, Hellgate: The House That Screamed 2) is on his way to New York via Uber, something that seems a little odd for a rich stockbroker like himself. In any case, he finds himself stuck at a familiar-looking garage with a dead driver, a still-hungry werewolf and a fortune in cocaine. Unfortunately every time he does some, he transforms into a werewolf.
The first half hour is an entertaining microbudget rampage as multiple random victims meet their end in a spray of digital blood. Frequent viewers will recognize Polonia regulars Jeff Kirkendall (Revenge of the Empire of the Apes, Yule Log) and Marie DeLorenzo (Amityville Island, The Last Chainsaw Massacre) among them.
There’s also some fairly good industrial goth music playing on the soundtrack. Cleopatra Entertainment is distributing Cocaine Werewolf, and they’ve added several songs from their roster of artists, including Front Line Assembly, Switchblade Symphony and Hollywood After Dark. The highlight though is the psychobilly theme song “Cocaine Werewolf” by 69 Cats.
You might remember I had issues with them adding songs to the Argentinian film A Taste of Blood. This time however, it seems they were involved with Cocaine Werewolf from the start and, while still not a perfect fit, they’re much less out of place than they were in that film.
And speaking of films, the last half of Cocaine Werewolf has our hairy antagonist falling in with a group of filmmakers shooting a microbudget killer clown film, in Super 8 no less. And as he’s adding some unwanted realism to the shoot, Sheriff Larson (Ken Van Sant; King Crab, Reel Monsters) is busy trying to track him down. That allows Polonia along with Ford Austin (The Angry Baby Monkey Show, Grappling with Your Demons) who had the original idea and Tyger Torrez who wrote the script, to do some meta spoofing of no-budget filmmaking as well as drop in a shower scene to give the film’s marketability a bump.
Cocaine Werewolf also has somewhat better effects than we’re used to seeing from Polonia. Yes, there’s still the incredibly poor digital blood and breaking glass effects, but we do get some practical severed limbs and a fairly decent decapitation. Unfortunately, we also get a smear of blood on the cheek used to represent the result of someone taking an axe to the face. As for the creature itself, credit goes to Josh Wasylink (The Dark Tapes, Psycho Goreman) for coming up with a werewolf mask that looks like a cross between a wolf and Rawhead Rex, as well as some nasty looking claws for it as well.
With Mark Polonia’s films being such a mixed bag, I have to admit I had my reservations going into Cocaine Werewolf. But, not only is it above-average compared to the director’s other films, it can hold its own among microbudget films in general. It’s a good choice for when you just want something light to keep you amused for a while.
*** 3/5
Cleopatra Entertainment has released Cocaine Werewolf on Blu-ray and DVD, as well as to Pay Per View Platforms. It will be available on other platforms in November.
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