Spoiler WarningWerewolf By Night is exactly what Marvel fans needed. Michael Giacchino deliveres an absurdly fantastic horror genre special that brings a whole new tone to the MCU. Werewolf By Night is a love letter to classic monster films and introduces some incredible additions of Marvel characters. It’s gory, suspenseful, entertaining, super violent, action-packed, and contains an absolutely stellar cast. Werewolf By Night is a well-crafted and visually stunning masterpiece that serves as the near-perfect entry for these monsters to officially arrive in the MCU.

Mostly filmed in black and white, Ulysses Bloodstone, a world-famous monster hunter and leader of the guild of other monster hunters, has just passed away. His widow, Verusa (Harriet Sansom Harris) has summoned the best monster hunters from all over the world to pay their respects at the Bloodstone compound. Among them is Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal), where the opening sequence begins with him walking into the interior of the compound completely surrounded by various creature heads serving as trophies. Before the memorial begins, Ulysses’ estranged daughter Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly) arrives.

Furious, Verusa (who is also her stepmother) confronts Elsa about leaving her father and the Bloodstone family for roughly 20 years, implying that she doesn’t deserve to be there. Elsa reveals that she wasn’t always quite fond of her father, but she still has the right to attend the macabre memorial. As everyone gathers around Ulysses’ coffin to begin, Verusa reveals that he has left a message for the attending monster hunters. An animated corpse of Ulysses awakens and reveals the monster hunters are all actually there to fight for the role of being the ruby-red bloodstone’s new owner, which is also a birthright that Elsa has truly come back to claim.

Let the Hunt Begin

In order to win the competition, the group of hunters must retrieve the bloodstone relic directly from the back of a monster that’s lurking in the nearby castle garden, or they can all attempt to kill each other. The large-scale garden has also been littered with a variety of weapons. Along with Jack Russell and Elsa Bloodstone, the rest of the remaining hunters participating in the Bloodstone competition include Linda (Eugenie Bondurant), Jovan (Kirk Thatcher), Simon (Leonardo Nam), and another hunter (Daniel J. Watts) whose name didn’t seem to be mentioned. The group gathers outside the garden where they begin a ritual before starting the competition.

Once the competition officially goes underway, all the hunters immediately begin searching for the monster. Not long after searching around various areas of the garden, Jack and Elsa run into each other. He reveals that he does not want to fight and that they just should just keep on moving. Before Elsa is able to respond, Jovan swings in with his very large axe, nearly missing Jack and Elsa. They are both able to escape Jovan as they separate further into the castle garden.

Now alone, Elsa walks into a trap where Simon quickly attacks her with a spear-firing gauntlet. Nearly surviving the attack, Elsa manages to kill Simon and go into hiding just before Jovan arrives yet again. Jack is still walking through the enormous castle garden searching for the monster…until the monster finds him. The monster is revealed to be Man-Thing (Casey Jones), who is actually a very dear friend to Jack Russell. He tells Man-Thing that is going to do whatever he can to keep him safe and to get him out of there alive.

Caught in mid-conversation, Linda arrives and attacks Jack. He manages to lure Linda away from Man-Thing but ends up running into Elsa once again. Jack and Elsa are both accidentally trapped in a mausoleum where they eventually decide to form an alliance to help each other get what they want. Having a plan in place, Jack and Elsa find a way out of the mausoleum where they find Jovan being brutally killed by Man-Thing. While Jack is looking for a way out of the garden, Elsa quickly befriends Man-Thing and takes him to meet up with Jack.

It's Morphin' Time

Before Man-Thing is successfully able to escape into the nearby woods, from a distance, Elsa removes the bloodstone relic off his back. As Jack attempts to pick up the bloodstone so that he can give it to Elsa, the relic rejects him and pushes him back, knocking him off his feet. Witnessing what had just happened to Jack, Verusa and the remaining monster hunters realize that Jack himself is also a monster. Waking up back inside the Bloodstone castle, Jack is now trapped inside a cage along with Elsa. Not long after, Verusa and the surviving monster hunters arrive to kill both Jack and Elsa.

With Verusa using the bloodstone to trigger Jack’s transformation, he has no choice but to reveal that he is a werewolf. Now fully a werewolf, Jack uses his abilities to break out of the cage to attack Verusa, her guards, and the monster hunters. After a gruesome battle, and with assistance from Elsa, they both successfully kill everyone in the room. Jack escapes the Bloodstone compound to reunite with Man-Thing, while Elsa now possesses the bloodstone relic.

Breaking the Marvel Mold

It's no question that Werewolf By Night is a dedicated work of art. Werewolf By Night is not only an excellent entry into the MCU but an excellent entry into the horror genre itself. Gael García Bernal pulls off an incredible performance as Jack Russell, and hopefully, this won't be the last time we see him. The overall cinematography and score were certainly impressive, while the CGI could use a little work. What's interesting is that Werewolf By Night can truly be watched without knowledge of any other MCU movies or shows.

The 52-minute Marvel Studios special, Werewolf By Night, will arrive via streaming on October 7 exclusively on Disney+.