Uncaged (2016): A Werewolf Turns the Camera on Himself

Every so often a werewolf picture tries to solve the oldest problem of the genre: how do you show a man what he becomes when he cannot remember becoming it? Uncaged, directed by Daniel Robbins, answered with a camera and a strap.

The premise, laid out in the film's own press materials, follows Jack — orphaned young, raised alongside his cousin and best friend Brandon — who turns eighteen and begins sleepwalking. He wakes in the woods with no memory and no clothes and no idea what carried him there. So he does the obvious modern thing: he mounts a camera on himself to record the nights he cannot recall. What the footage reveals is that he is the hidden heir to a violent family legacy, the kind that runs in blood rather than wills.

The artwork that announced the film leaned into that dread with a simple command — beware the beast — in an exclusive unveiling in September 2015. From there the release fell into place: RLJ Entertainment put Uncaged out on DVD and digital in the United States on February 2, 2016, a date carried independently in trade coverage that February.

The cast pairs Ben Getz and Zack Weiner, with Paulina Singer, Gene Jones and others filling out the ensemble. Worth clearing up for anyone searching: this Uncaged is Robbins' 2016 werewolf story with a camera-driven premise, not the 2008 Never Cry Werewolf, which circulated under the Uncaged title in some overseas markets.

The premise makes it a transformation tale built on a disturbing hook — the werewolf as a stranger you surveil in your own skin — released into American living rooms at the start of 2016.

Sources

• Exclusive: 'Uncaged' Artwork Warns Beware the Beast — Dread Central, Sept. 11 2015; artwork reveal, synopsis, cast, Feb. 2 2016 RLJ release.
• Uncaged (2016) review — Horror Society, Feb. 1 2016; independently lists the Feb. 2 2016 RLJ release and cast.