Werewolves Within Star Harvey Guillen on Crafting His Character and the Film’s Impressive Ensemble

The upcoming murder-mystery film Werewolves Within, based on the Ubisoft game of the same name, explores what happens when a group of townspeople and their paranoia gets the best of them when a series of violent crimes starts to unfold, leading them all to start turning on each other to figure out who could be responsible for the murders. As the title implies, some think that a werewolf is responsible, resulting in a hilarious experience in which each of the distinctly different characters comes to their own conclusions. Star Harvey Guillén recently shared his excitement about developing his character and the hilarious ensemble he shared the screen with. Werewolves Within hits theaters on June 25th and Digital Rental and VOD on July 2nd.

“The script was already, obviously, written but the writer and the director are very open about collaborating with the actor,” Guillén expressed to ComicBook.com. “So things that we brought to Joaquin … things weren’t specifically written down like his mannerisms or whatnot and even the wardrobe or anything like that. So that’s something that we created together and it’s like, ‘What should he wear? How would he stand?’”

He continued, “And it was very important for me to bring life to a character that has been … sometimes queer characters are portrayed as a caricature and it’s how we’ve seen it for so long where it’s flamboyant, over the top, where I wanted to bring it down and say, ‘He could be flamboyant, he could be over the top, but it has to be grounded and it has to feel real. This person could actually be the instructor at a yoga studio, your next-door neighbor has to feel real.’ So I’m glad that we did that and I feel like the proof is in the pudding.”

In the film, after a proposed gas pipeline creates divisions within the small town of Beaverfield, and a snowstorm traps its residents together inside the local inn, newly arrived forest ranger Finn (Sam Richardson) and postal worker Cecily (Milana Vayntrub) must try to keep the peace and uncover the truth behind a mysterious creature that has begun terrorizing the community.

Joining Guillén in the film are hilarious performers like Richardson and Vayntrub, as well as actors like George Basil, Sarah Burns, Michael Chernus. Guillén expressed that he was as excited to learn of his co-stars as audiences will be.

“The cast is phenomenal. These actors are so good at what they do and their comic geniuses, each one of them just brings something to the table that the script by itself, you can read,” the actor admitted. “And you’re like, ‘Oh, this is fun. This is a fun script.’ But then when you get to set and it just breathes and it comes to life in front of you, it’s like, ‘Wow, these characters are perfectly cast.’ Cheyenne Jackson plays my partner and it was just the idea that we can have these two queer characters in a small town and mirror, maybe what society sometimes does, is the unknown. It’s the whispers or the assumptions that you make about someone and everyone doing it about each other. At the end of the day, what you have to do in this community is communicate and talk. Sometimes that’s the first step and it’s the biggest problem. So the question really is, ‘Who is the werewolf? Who is the monster? A real werewolf that’s after everyone or the monster that lives within you?’”

That feeling of isolation wasn’t just a thing of fiction, with Guillén pointing out that the shooting experience was also an isolating experience.

“I think the biggest challenge for me, personally, was being in our own bubble,” the actor said of the production. “It was just like we live in a small, cabin retreat area … [that had us] a little bit terrified. Because it’s like, ‘What’s happening? There’s no Internet really, there’s no television in your rooms. There’s nothing like that.’ So it really forces you to just be in the moment and live in a moment and really observe everything. So that was for the first couple days, that was maybe the most challenging. Then after a while, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is really cool.’ You’re forced to do something that you probably wouldn’t organically do.”

He added, “Especially when you’re working on a set and stuff, it gets ‘go, go, go.’ But it made everything just smoother, in a way, where it just, if something came up or something was like, ‘Oh no, it’s starting to snow in the middle of the scene,’ and we shot this scene, half of it the other day and it wasn’t snowing or whatever. Nothing is like … nothing like that ever happened because it was like, ‘It’s all going to work out.’ And this idea of an aura of mellowness, it was just like, ‘This is cool, this is fun, and things are going to work out,’ which I really appreciated.”

Werewolves Within hits theaters on June 25th and Digital Rental and VOD on July 2nd.

Are you looking forward to the new film? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!