Teddy

To be honest I was a little bit underwhelmed by the movie. Our main character Teddy is your typical loner that does not have many friends and probably doesn't know which direction his life should go and then one day he gets attacked by an unknown creature. From there on he starts to change in his behavior and his physicality. It's pretty obvious that this is a werewolf movie and I absolutely love those. I think there are not enough good werewolf movies out there but sadly this one could not contribute. It's not a bad movie don't get me wrong, the characterization and the drama are pretty good and the humor is decent, but I was expecting something different and I feel like this movie was a let down overall. The last act is where the movie starts to pick up some pace but even that can't save it because you are left with the feeling that you haven't seen that much. It's a decent werewolf movie but don't expect much horror, but instead prepare for a teen drama. [5,2/10]

It's started off with a nice creepy feel .it had so much potential and then it fell flat with its ending everyone knows they cannot die unless it's a silver bullet.would have been nice if he knocked up the girlfriend with a baby after he became a werewolf and maybe it ended with an ultrasound that looked like a baby with wolf like features ;) over all it was a decent watch with good actors but it could have developed a better storyline.

Summary A successful look at the myth of the werewolf, in this case associated with a coming of age and a love story of a teenager in a town in the French Pyrenees, with the realism, dryness and social notes typical of French terror and a moving result. Review Teddy is a teenager who lives in a French town in the Pyrenees area. From the moment he is bitten by something hidden in the woods, his behavior begins to change. Teddy hasn't finished school, he's dating a girl who's about to finish high school, he loves satanic rock, he lives with a strange uncle and he has an amazing job. Outside of all this, he is a simple and impulsive boy who lacks a social life. The film by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma (critic's award at the Sitges Festival 2020 and part of the official selection for the Cannes Film Festival) brings their perspective on the myth of the werewolf, framing it in a coming of age and a story of love, enhanced by notes on class, work, on medical knowledge and cultural differences, notes never underlined, but rather arise spontaneously from history; Teddy and his entourage have something of Bruno Dumont's Hors Satan. The story develops a successful narrative crescendo, generally staying within a realistic register that includes everyday episodes (including sexual ones) that in this context take on enormous tension and others that are very simple but put the viewer to the test. The directors know how to resort to ellipses and off-screen with solvency, to which is added a certain humor that emerges from the small-town dynamics. And when it comes to solving situations, the film shows the characteristic dryness of French terror, which does not prevent them from being moving. Anthony Bajon (absolute protagonist) composes very well a lonely Teddy who generates empathy in the viewer. And I left for the end a special mention for the remarkable soundtrack by Amaury Chabauty, which contributes opportunely and enormously to the climates created in the film.

Here is another movie I really wanted to like but ended up disappointed in. My problem with "Teddy" is that they focused too much on the more mundane details of this guy's life. It was marketed as a horror movie, but it feels more like a drama most of the time--almost a soap opera, in fact. It just happens to have one sequence where some violent things happen, but it just didn't feel rewarding enough to sit through everything else. It was well made--it looks nice, it is well performed--I just didn't think there was much to the story.

Although the Boukherma brothers' film "Teddy" looks like one more title in the filmography on lycanthropy, crossed with a coming-of-age tale, it is a dense story that, in the end, omits the humorous notes that have previously marked it. It is not even explicit when the creature appears on the scene, although it is as bloody as Brian De Palma's «Carrie», the drama that it reminded me the most, with the difference that Carrie White's telekinesis is a gift of her own, while Teddy Pruvost's lycanthropy is a curse caused by a wolf that exterminates people and animals. «Teddy» begins questioning the construct called "la France", then gives the concept of family a left, plays with youth's primaeval sex and dreams, and inserts small slaps, here and there, to civil defense, superstition and "New Age", to finally end with a right hand that sends the provincial middle class to the canvas. It is not an easy mix, which, with a werewolf attached, ignores the chance to terrify the audience (except for a couple of Cronenberg-esque moments of physical terror) or to use gimmicks a la «Carrie», like its fearful coda with a girl kneeling by Carrie's grave. When the tale of «Teddy» is over, the game ends dramatically, without oneirism or jump scares. Selected for the official competition at the Cannes film festival in 2020, with Spike Lee as the president of the jury, possibly «Teddy» would have won one or two awards: for example, the cast, made up mostly of natural actors, is magnificent. However, the pandemic eliminated those possibilities and, in a way, stigmatized it as an untimely work in the atmosphere of desolation we all experienced in 2020-21. For those who shy away from horror movies, try not to overlook this one, and for fans of the genre, enjoy it, but be warned that you will see something different from the crossbreeding of men and wolves that the film industries usually produce.

The French have produced a good number of horror movies such as Haute Tension, Raw, L'Interieur, Martyrs or Frontiers. They manage to shock and transgress horror fans whoblike myself are used to the usual Hollywood horror tropes. Sadly Teddy doesn't belong in that list of good horror movies. They try to tackle the lycanthrope theme with mundane and nonsensical results. The move has a few comedic moments and the end is probably the best part. In a rural French village, a douchy bald-headed big-eared kid with glasses and heavy metal t-shirts who for some reason doesn't get along with the authorities, somehow gets bitten by a mysterious creature in the woods. From then on not only does he start to change but his life starts falling apart too, especially with his family and equally odd blonde girlfriend. The plot sounds good but alas it is showered with silly drama, nonsensical typical French dialogues, a few gross scenes and one of the most unlikable kids in horror cinema. If you like French horror movies with a bit of weirdness, give it a shot but be warned, award-winning it ain't.

For the most part, the performances are well done and subdued while the rising action has a decent pace. For me, I had more of an issue with the logistics of the film in terms of the body horror and the climax scene of the film. I do think it's worth a watch and the performance of the lead is laudable.