Technically, not a werewolf film — filmmaker Fritz Böhm creates his own mythology. Replacing the full moon with puberty, he centers on a young woman’s coming-of-age tale. Anna’s body is a possession, a conquest, a target — seemingly anything but her own, and the film charts her movements towards knowledge and freedom. The concept structures the action as one steady build-up, not a series of build-ups following the lunar cycle; it’s a slower burn than might be expected. 

As Anna, Bel Powley brings fear, curiosity, and a steadily growing boldness. The script elides her adjustment to the outside world into a few beats, but Powley plays the transition with the assurance needed to make it at least function. Her best scenes are shared with an actor named Collin Kelly-Sordelet, who’s perfectly credible as a nerdy teen who shifts to a more heroic/romantic role.

The movie works as well as it does because Böhm grounds the shortcuts and the new lore in the familiar — high-school bullying, teen drinking, and vigilante cops taking the law into their own hands. It makes you wonder who voted for Liv Tyler as the saintly sheriff.