With Late Phases, filmmaker Adrian Garcia Bogliano pens a visual love letter to werewolf films, all while weaving a wonderfully nuanced story of an embittered and blind war veteran (Nick Damici) forced to fight a beastly killer preying on the seniors living in a quiet retirement community.
What it lacks in overt frills, Late Phases makes up for in compelling storytelling and wonderfully layered characters, courtesy of screenwriter Eric Stolze, who does an admirable job of making his werewolf tale a compelling allegory for the aging process and the idea of dying with dignity. Without a doubt, Late Phases is one of the finest lycanthrope films of the last 20 years and a shining example of great independent horror.
In Late Phases we are introduced to Ambrose (Damici), the stoic war vet who is being forced to move into the seemingly picturesque Crescent Bay retirement community as his son (Embry) begins to realize he can’t help a man who doesn’t want to be helped. During his first night in Crescent Bay, Ambrose’s neighbor and his seeing-eye dog (his best friend in the world) are violently attacked by something far more animal than man, and the solvent war vet then sets out to put a stop to all the killings, giving his seemingly ‘worthless’ existence some meaning once again.
As a fan of pretty much all the talent involved, I knew before I even laid eyes on a single frame of Late Phases that I was going to love it and I’m happy to report that Bogliano and company did not disappoint. It’s incredibly rare to find a horror movie that can immediately draw you in before even one single moment of violence, and yet Late Phases hit the mark right out of the gate and never lets up. It’s hard to pinpoint just exactly who deserves the most props here, but it’s safe to say that every aspect of Late Phases- from the directing to the script to the work done by the incredible cast and special effects crew- deserves every bit of praise they receive because the results are pure cinematic magic. And for those of you Silver Bullet fans, the film features several wonderful nods to the 1985 film.
Enough cannot be said about Damici’s work in the film; he’s given us several memorably unique performances over the last few years but Late Phases is undoubtedly his finest role to date. A character that feels like it was plucked straight out of the John Wayne-era of film, Damici gives viewers so much without ever saying too much and makes it look genuinely effortless while doing so. Both Tom Noonan and Lance Guest are also sublime in Late Phases in transformative roles that were very atypical for the pair of acting veterans.
It’s not a huge stretch to say that Late Phases is one of the best additions to the werewolf pantheon to come along in some time and is a truly refreshing spin on modern lycanthrope mythos. Also, it’s worth noting that Late Phases features some of the best werewolf transformations I’ve seen in decades which should undoubtedly delight the f/x enthusiasts as well. What starts off as a quiet and subtle tale of a man coming to terms with his own mortality and purpose in this world soon morphs into a wildly tragic action-fueled nightmare and the way Bogliano balances between the two is, without a doubt, some masterful work on his part.
Movie Score: 4/5
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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