In this low-budget shocker, a young pyrotechnics specialist (Michael Dionne) preys on his friends and co-workers after a werewolf’s bite infects his bloodstream and turns him into a lycanthrope. This genre pick offers gore and humor in roughly equal proportion, but it’s self-consciously directed. The emphasis on visual gimmickry—too many angled shots, strobe effects, quicksilver cutting—detracts and distracts from what could have been a reasonably interesting story. There’s enough here to satisfy horror fans, but the impression left is one of overreaching.

Shelf Talk: Lionsgate missed a sure bet by scheduling this release for Christmas instead of Halloween; it’s not the type of movie that generally makes a good stocking stuffer. It can be promoted alongside such contemporary monster movies as Underworld or Van Helsing, but as a low-budget DVD premiere with an unknown cast, you won’t get much traction from genre identification alone. The package art of a snarling man-beast silhouetted against the moon and the online marketing campaign will have to do most of the work.