The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf Parent Guide

Vesemir (Theo James) may be well into his seventies, but that doesn’t stop him gallivanting around dark and dangerous forests, slaughtering murderous monsters for coins. That’s because Vesemir is a witcher – a mutated human with preternatural powers and uncanny skill. And while Vesemir is more than prepared to deal with dark creatures of the woods, he’s been drawn into something truly perilous: local politics. Tetra (Lara Pulver) is a powerful influence on the local king and is trying to instigate a war with the witchers. It’s down to Vesemir to prove that the witchers are not only necessary, but trustworthy.

If you’re not already invested to some extent in The Witcher, be it the books, the games, or the Netflix series, then you’re not going to want to start here. This movie jumps in at the deep end and doesn’t stop long enough to explain the backstory. Unless you plan to spend the entire runtime googling your questions, it’s probably better to wait until you’re more familiar with the franchise.

This film is also not at all suitable for family audiences – thus its overall grade. Animated movies have a lot of options in how they’re going to handle violence, and Nightmare of the Wolf has opted to be as gory as possible. The result is frequent decapitations, dismemberments, and impalements. It’s a good thing this is digitally animated, otherwise I think the producers would have blown a huge budget on red ink alone.

On the other hand, if you’re already a fan, this flick might have some appeal. It doesn’t waste your time trying to explain the basics, and just gets on with telling a short, simple story in the universe you already know you like. And I do mean short – this movie is only about 83 minutes long, which makes for a pretty compact journey. Better still, it keeps the cast of important characters small. You don’t need huge amounts of character development in a story like this and trimming the narrative down to the activities of the core characters keeps the pacing tight and consistent.

Whether you have a good time with Nightmare of the Wolf really does come down to your level of interest in The Witcher franchise. It’s possible to enjoy the movie if you don’t understand the franchise background, but it’s certainly harder, and frankly, you’d probably have a better time watching something else anyway. Maybe something a little less gore-soaked. Nothing suppresses the appetite quite like watching a bunch of children get devoured in a forest.