Interesting ideas. Terrible movie.

It's a shame, too. I find myself coming back to this film not just for the So-Bad-It's-Good element, but because I genuinely feel this was a film had some good ideas but no idea what to do with them. For example...

The werewolf skeleton and transference of the curse:

I actually really love the idea of a team of archeologists digging up a Native American Skinwalker skeleton. That could actually be a really cool way to begin a movie, and as a plot device, it's perfect! It completely renders the villain and his dumb man made werewolf scheme utterly redundant.

Pair the introduction of the skeleton with the fact that the Native American guy, Tommy. In the film, he gets cut on the skeleton after a pointless fist dight breaks out right on top of the their newest find. Just a few minutes prior, he can be seen boozing himself up on the job. You don't need the villain getting into pointless fist fights with the dig crew or injecting him with instawerewolf to cause it. Tommy could easily have just cut himself on the skeleton trying to dig it up drunk.
Hell, Tommy doesn't even need to survive any longer than he did. He just needs to non-fatally maul one person and then after he's killed by Charlie Sheen's Uncle and The Cowboy, presto, his surviving victim is the werewolf for the rest of the film. I've just neutered George Rivero's character's role and bizarre man made werewold subplot, completely and utterly.

A rundown of a simplified and more coherent narrative:

Our hero, Paul, is one of the primary benefactors of the expedition. Let's just skip the subplot where they're trying to get him to fund it and just have him already funding it from the start.
In fact, let's also jettison that whole bit where he's moving into his Grandma's old house or whatever that was. We, sadly, lose Sam the Keeper unless we reregulate his role to dig site security, which probably puts him in with Joe Estevez and Cowboy Guy when they shoot Tommy.
Anyway, Paul's just checking into a hotel for a few days for a big presentation Professor Noel is holding. The dig crew has recently unearthed some important Native American artifacts. Being the primary benefactor of the expedition, attendance is manditory for Paul. There, I just tied Paul into the plot and put him right in the middle of the events at the beginning of the movie.

Anyway, Natalie and Professor Noal take Paul down to the site just in time for Tommy to cut himself on the skinwalker skeleton. Tommy gets taken to the hospital and becomes a werewolf later that night. He begins his rampage and badly maims Paul while fleeing town.

Tommy still gets dealt with by Joe Estevez, the Cowboy, and Sam the Keeper. Now Paul's infected with the werewolf curse. We follow his struggles with his new condition for the rest of the movie. Natalie, Professor Noel, and the dig team end up having to take him down, too, in order to prevent further deaths and infections. At least from a writing perspective, I believe I just fixed most of the film's problems. Put this summery on the desk of a decent scriptwriter, then get it under the wing of a competent producer and director, and you have yourself an alright werewolf movie.

And there is one final idea: instead of relying on silver bullets, I think it would be more interesting for them to follow the Skinwalker legend and deal with WerePaul that way.



"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf