“How many days disappear,

You look in the mirror so how do you choose”

-Nine Days “Story of a Girl”

I like festival reviews. I know some people read them and see nothing but FESTIVAL BIAS!!!, but I find them helpful, for the most part. There are a lot of horror movies out there—some of which are not good—and many of them are smaller films, so festival reviews help to place these movies on my radar. I don’t take festival reviews as 100 percent gospel–I don’t take any review as 100 percent gospel. That would be crazy—but I try to read reviews from places I trust, then decide if it’s something I’m interested in based on those reviews, and make my own judgment after watching it.

Coming out of SXSW this year, there were a handful of movies that seemed to keep popping up on horror twitter/blogs/websites/letterboxd etc. The two films that seemed to have the best buzz coming out of the festival were A QUIET PLACE, and HERIDITARY, but the movie that I was most interested in coming out of SXSW– even though the reviews were probably the most mixed of the bunch– was WILDLING. Judging by the reviews, WILDLING sounded like a werewolf movie–a subgenre that we unfortunately don’t get enough of. And, on top of being a werewolf movie, it’s a movie that stars Brad Dourif—something else we don’t get enough of. So, when I saw that there was a werewolf movie coming out with Brad Douriff in it, my fancy was tickled.

Okay, so WILDLING is a little more than a Brad Douriff werewolf movie (he’s not the werewolf btw). It’s not even a werewolf movie, really. It’s a wildling movie. Which is different than a werewolf, but kind of the same. Here’s what it’s about:

Anna has been raised in a locked attic with barred windows, unable to leave after being captured by a man she refers to as “Daddy” (Brad Douriff). Daddy explains to her that he can’t let her leave the room for her own protection due to a mythical beast referred to as the “Wildling”; a creature that snatches up and kills children. As she matures, Daddy proceeds to give her “medicine” injections that stop the monthly periods that come as she enters womanhood.

One day–now free from the attic– Anna wakes in a hospital room, disoriented by the whole new world that surrounds her. Noticing her discomfort, the local sheriff (Liv Tyler) offers to take Anna in and help her adjust to life outside of the small attic where she was raised. From here, we witness typical teenage coming-of-age movie hijinx: Anna goes to school, goes to parties, and turns into a creature that eats her fellow classmates.

You can probably guess by the plot description some of the thematic elements WILDLING bats around. WILDLING is a movie about old men trying to keep a young girl’s womanhood at bay. This can be read as old men being terrified of it–or society being terrified of it– or as a young woman finally blossoming and rebelling against the patriarchal society that keeps her down. All those elements can be found in WILDLING, and while they aren’t exactly buried deep beneath the surface– or overly original—the film has its fun with them, and they add a layer to what is essentially a young adult coming-of-age story.

I don’t mean that as an insult by-the-way. Some of my favorite pieces of entertainment (BUFFY, GILMORE GIRLS, VERONICA MARS) could probably be lumped into that same category. WILDLING is basically a FREEFORM/CW version of a werewolf movie, and I kind of dig the way it takes an entire teenage high school coming of age story, and crams it into its second act. Much of these story beats are pretty by -the-numbers: There’s a school bully, a peppy blonde, she drinks too much at a party, has a crush on a boy, etc. But most of WILDLING’s plot is told with a pep-in-its-step– especially during these scenes– that gives it an endearing quality. I watch a lot of smaller-budget horror, and there are plenty of times that I sit and hope that something—ANYTHING– will happen on a story level; which is not an issue I had with WILDLING. Even if WILDLING does feel overstuffed at times, I’m not gonna knock it.

Where the film does falter for me is in its third act. When the wildling transformation comes, the filmmakers admirably try to accomplish the look of the creature with a mixture of CG, and practical effects, but unfortunately the effects never rise above the level of distraction. I will admit that some of the shoddiness of the makeup/cg is kind of charming, as initially the wildling kind of looks like a Klingon from the original Star Trek, before it morphs into the sasquatch from those Jack-Links commercials. But, the transformation scene is a huge part of a creature feature like this, and when a movie builds to a full-on transformation like this one does, it’s kind of a bummer that it’s so underwhelming.

In addition to the transformation scene, a movie like this needs a lead performance that will get you to care about the character that does the transforming, and luckily WILDLING has that in Bel Powley. She’s phenomenal, and anchors the entire movie, leading the audience through some of WILDLING’S rougher patches. Powley gives a warm–and funny– performance, which is crucial, because the we need to like this character so much that we don’t want to see her change, even if deep down we kind of do. Liv Tyler is also in the movie, and she’s fine here. Breathy as always, and maybe a bit unconvincing as the town sheriff, but displaying enough motherly empathy in the scenes where it’s needed. Brad Douriff is incredible. Obviously.

I’m not quite sure how “good” I think WILDLING is, but it hit two sweet spots for me: coming-of-age movie, and creature feature. The movie is a bit silly (at times more than a bit), and it’s a bit overstuffed, but it’s anchored by some good performances, and a perkiness that’s sometimes missing from a lot of smaller-budget horror flicks.