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Film: The Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2
Year: 2023
Director: Seth Breedlove
Writer: Seth Breedlove
Starring: Steve Stockton, Sandy Lewis and Susy
Review:
This is a documentary that I got the chance to see via Justin Cook. When I saw that this is was a new one from Seth Breedlove, I was on board as I’ve seen a good number of his. I enjoy how he constructs them and by doing it on cryptids or mythical creatures like we get here, I’m there for that.
Synopsis: across the four corners region of the southwest Untied States, there’s said to exist an ancient, supernatural evil. An evil that preys on the fear of its victims to gain a greater power. Now, witnesses lift the veil of the most terrifying encounters with modern-day werewolves ever heard. Witness stories that seem to tie legends of upright canids with those of hellhounds, poltergeists and even the mythical Skinwalker.
Now what I’ll say is that the synopsis is good to set the stage here. What we’re getting is a few different people who have had encounters with something that they cannot fully explain. Our first interviewee, Steve, talks about how there are shaman or traditional healers in the area that know how to create the Native American version of the werewolf which is the Skinwalker. This is more of a shapeshifter though since it can become other people or animals. I’ll be honest, this makes it even more terrifying.
What works here is that we have people being interviewed going into what they know about legends of Skinwalkers. There are a couple of people here that talk about an old woman and how she would disappear with a giant dog seemingly to take her place. There are others that saw a giant brown wolf. Another person caught things on their security camera that looked like a translucent dog that runs across the screen but wasn’t fully captured. I can’t explain what they saw. I do know that at night, fear and our eyes can play tricks on us. There could be a logical explanation, but I don’t know what that would be without research.
It doesn’t help that New Mexico has a high rate of missing people. Part of that could be the surrounding deserts to the cities. A good fragment of this state is uninhabited. It could be as simple as someone heading out into the wilderness and getting lost. There could be kidnappings or maybe a monster. 75% of roads here aren’t paved. There is also the first atomic bomb being assessed here and large deposits of uranium. This could factor in as well. The legends also date back to people living in this area for around 2000 years as well. Getting back to what I was saying, New Mexico ranks 10th highest for missing people. Gallup and Albuquerque ranking as top ten cities as well for missing or murdered Indigenous Persons cases. 10% of the population falls into this ethnic background, which makes it that much more striking.
What I’ll say is that I like how this constructed. Breedlove just lets the people being interviewed tell their story. He doesn’t probe or question anything. This is set up for you to hear what they have to say and make your own judgements. I appreciate that. I also like that we’ll see the interviewees unless they want to hide their identity. Breedlove has CGI creatures to act out what they’re saying and I think that’s a good move. It makes it more interesting to see what the people are telling us play out, even though footage wasn’t shot of it. This has a good runtime. It doesn’t linger too long and moves along at a good pace. We are getting more history than other ones from Small Town Monsters, Breedlove’s company, and I do appreciate that since I don’t necessarily fully understand this creature. I like to see how similar it is different from the lore that I know. I’d recommend giving this a go if the subject is interesting or you like documentaries like this from our director.
My Rating: 7 out of 10