In the vein of Let the Right One In and Raw, When Animals Dream presents a familiar horror trope through a low key delivery in an effort to re-frame a well known monster. It's artistic by way of minimalism, getting off to an especially dull start that almost dares you to get bored. If you're the "I turned it off in 15 minutes" type, I can save you 15 minutes and tell you to skip this altogether. If you have the patience to stay with it, things do come together and serve to justify the more mundane moments. It never adds up to horror proper, and even the dramatic elements come from understated characters intent on saying more with less. But it has an interesting way of weaving werewolf lore around a it's coming of age themes, and though many points are predictable for both genres, the blend of melancholy moodiness and cathartic violence is actually quite satisfying.
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I had mixed feelings on the ending, as riding off into the sunset with your true love was unusually positive for the otherwise dire tone. Not to mention why would that guy continue to love a girl who now seems to be half dog and just killed a literal boat load of people? On reflection, that is a pretty dark outcome though. Since the film flops between sympathizing and condemning the character, I feel like we ultimately land on she's a murderer, right? I mean, bullies suck, so we want them to get there's, but she is a bloody monster who's now loose in society. My only hope was for the guy to hug her and be like "I accept you, no matter what" then she just bites his head off anyway, 'cause you can't trust a wolf. Maybe that's just me though....
