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Cast: Ben Getz, Kyle Kirkpatrick, Zachary Weiner, Garrett Hendricks, Paulina Singer
Orphaned as a child in the wake of a grisly tragedy, Jack was raised alongside his cousin and best friend, Brandon. At age 18, however, Jack’s otherwise uneventful life takes a sinister turn when he’s suddenly plagued by a series of bizarre sleepwalking episodes. After repeatedly waking up in the woods naked with no memory of the night before, Jack straps a camera to himself to document his behavior—and discovers a shocking truth: He is the unwitting heir to a monstrous family legacy of savagery, slaughter, and unrelenting horror from which death may be the only escape!
I love werewolf movies and over the years there have been some excellent ones. "Uncaged" is the newest, going off the trailer I expected another low budget attempt that would ultimately fail but it ended up being much better than I expected. To my surprise this is more a story and character driven film with some werewolf moments a little gore. Sure you get to see the werewolf especially towards the end but what made the film stand out was the story of Jack and his family history. I am not going to go into major plot details here so not to ruin the surprises. The main character, Jack and his family have a hairy history that plays out all the way to the end credits and possibly beyond. There is also a nice twist toward the end that you won't see coming.
Another thing that caught me by surprise was the amount of comedy in the film, I wasn't expecting that at all yet it was so funny that I was laughing out loud several times during the film. And then there was the cast, veteran actor, Gene Jones was fantastic in his brief yet memorable time on the screen but the rest of the cast shone as well. Ben Getz has amazing as Jack and Zack Weiner was also great as Jack's cousin and best friend. Zack had many of the film's best lines and he provided a lot of the funniest moments. The rest of the cast all did a terrific job as well.
Production wise the film looks and sounds much better than it's budget might suspect and even though the film makers kept the werewolf effects to a minimum there were several very cool practical effects used that I was very impressed with. "Uncaged" may not match up to other werewolf movies as far as effects and gore goes but it stands on it's own and it rises above many others with its stellar cast and its well-written story. I enjoyed it much more than I expected so for me it was a pleasant surprise. I recommend it to all fans of Independent cinema and horror in general. Available on DVD with Special Features that include:
Audio Commentary with cast and Crew
Howlingly Funny Film Outtakes
You can order the DVDHERE.
Released by Image Entertainment
*** 3/4 Out Of *****