‘The Yorkie Werewolf’ VOD Review
Stars: Isabella Jaimie, Rebecca De Ornelas, Zsolt Kormendy, Risa Mei, Jacob Rainer, Roy Ward, Juan Salvati | Written and Directed by Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas
The Yorkie Werewolf was bound to happen. With lycanthropes making a comeback lately, from Werewolves to The Beast Comes at Midnight and 12 To Midnight, somebody had to spoof them. And that someone was writer/director Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas (Stetson Tenz: Remote Therapist, The Sleepless), who serves up one of the highest concept genre films since Slotherhouse.
Jenny (Isabella Jaimie; Destiny Road, No Air) was born into a long line of witches, but she has no interest in pursuing the craft. As the film opens, she’s more interested in getting a selfie with her dead grandmother than she is with the woman’s dying pronouncement that she will be the one to end the witch’s ongoing war with the local mob, but at a great cost.
Things don’t get any better when she tells her mother Sandra (Rebecca De Ornelas; Sex and Justice, A Dangerous Place) that she’s skipping tonight’s sacrifice to go out with Nick (Zsolt Kormendy; Chaotic Justice, After Midnight), nephew of local mob boss Big Nick (Juan Salvati, Benny the Bum, Delivering the Goods).
However, his inability to keep his hands to himself leads to a compromise between Jenny and her mother, she agrees to attend if he’s the sacrifice. But there’s a traitor in the coven, and her mother and the other witches, as well as Nick, end up dead. Jenny survives but has her spirit mixed with the family pet, turning her into The Yorkie Werewolf (Risa Mei; Zenless Zone Zero, Sand Land: The Series), four-foot-fuck-all of furry fury.
From there, the film goes even further off the rails, introducing characters such as Chris (Jacob Rainer; Unfinished Business: Kingston High, Who’s Watching Us), a young vampire with his own reasons to hate the mob, Cliff (Roy Ward; Tree Secrets, Bare), a witch-friendly gun store owner, and giving us a not-so-surprising revelation about Jenny’s father.
Since the plot deals with shape-shifters, witches, and vampires, The Yorkie Werewolf is technically a horror comedy. But much like the Scary Movie franchise, nothing about it is even close to serious, let alone actually scary. Instead, it just lets fly with everything from fart jokes to jabs about dysfunctional families, gun culture, and Italian food. Of course, when you go after as many targets as this film does, and toss so many gags at the viewers, not all of them are going to hit their mark. Thankfully, plenty of them do, and at a brisk seventy minutes, the film doesn’t have time to run out of gags or let the concept get stale.
Despite the lack of scares, The Yorkie Werewolf does have some fairly bloody effects, including a severed head. Most of the effects look practical, the main exception being an obviously CGI explosion. The CGI for the assorted magic effects is perfectly acceptable, however. The costume for the title creature is basic but convincing, and easily manages to straddle the line between cute and lethal.
Among the cast, Juan Salvati steals almost every scene he’s in with his amusingly over-the-top performance as the warlock/mobster Big Nick. He brings the perfect amount of menace and absurdity to the role, delivering lines with gusto and chewing scenery in the best way possible. Risa Mei, whose credits are primarily as a voice actress, doesn’t have a lot of lines as the title creature, but she makes the most of the ones she has, especially in the final act’s bar scene. Isabella Jaimie is solid as Jenny, but her character struck me as more abrasive than funny much of the time.
The humour is definitely hit-or-miss, but that’s part of the charm. With its rapid-fire jokes, absurd situations, and willingness to embrace the ridiculous, The Yorkie Werewolf is more concerned with keeping the audience entertained than with the story it’s telling. The film never lingers too long on any one gag or plot thread, constantly finding a new source of jokes to keep the laughs coming.
Overall, The Yorkie Werewolf is a solid effort that manages to avoid taking itself seriously while never letting itself get too silly. It’s the best mob-affiliated horror comedy since Witness Infection, and while I may not have been howling with laughter, it kept me chuckling from start to finish. While it may not reinvent the genre, it delivers exactly what it promises, a ridiculous, fun, and occasionally bloody romp that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
*** 3/5
Deskpop Entertainment has released The Yorkie Werewolf to digital platforms.
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