6.5/10
A few years ago Let the Right One In came along and kind of revolutionized what everyone expected from a "monster movie", the monsters in that case being vampires. After the success of that movie, there seems to have been a rush to humanize other classic movie monsters in the same vein. We Are What We Are "did for zombies what LTROI did for vampires" and now When Animals Dream purports to do the same for werewolves, although I'm sure I missed a whole bunch of imitators in between.
The thing is, I guess, When Animals Dream doesn't deviate from the formula enough. A pubescent girl is coming to terms with the fact that she's actually a werewolf, and the expected parallels are drawn between this fantasy concept and the realities of girls coming of age (bodily changes, bullying from peers, society and family expectations changing, etc). The mildly interesting caveat is that the villagers (it's always a small village) seem to be aware that werewolves have existed among them before and this leads to the film's main conflict.
I don't have many bad things to say about the movie. It's well made with a good amount of restraint. The special effects are well done and the photography is very nice to look at. And the acting is good across the board. But there just isn't enough new or exciting here. As I was exiting the theatre I immediately overheard two nearby conversations, one that started as "I liked Let the Right One in more but..." and another as "In Let the Right One In, they..." so the comparisons weren't apparent to only me.
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