Aiming straight for the old style exploitation market demographic but with a self-aware edge of comedy, this mildly amusing and kind of cheap flick is an agreeable enough way to spend a quick 90 minutes if you're forgiving enough.

Lou is a deadbeat cop in a flyspeck town who spends most of his time drunk or trying to get even more drunk at the bar owned by local hottie Jessica. When the town's loony conspiracy theorist Willie calls in with a complaint about demon occultists in the woods near his place, the at-the-end-of-his-tether police chief sends Lou to investigate.

None too happy at traipsing around the forest at night and expecting to find nothing more than teenagers taking drugs, Lou instead finds a group of townspeople dressed in robes in the midst of some weird ritual when he's hit from behind and knocked out cold.

The next morning, hung over and back in his bed, Lou feels different, and it's not just the pentagram carved with the point of a knife onto his torso. He can hear better, smell better and has better focus, so determines to get to the bottom of the case.

He happens to be going over what he's learned back at Jessica's bar when two hoods working for the local crime lord break in intending to bust the place up, but when Lou confronts them in the men's room he starts to change into a monster, killing one and wounding another before seeing him off.

When he comes to, Lou finds himself locked up at Willie's place, who now understands what's going on – the ceremony in the woods was intended to consolidate the strength of reptilian beings posing at townsfolk, and that Lou's been turned into the werewolf intended for them to sacrifice as part of their ritual magic.

Lou intends to test the theory, making Willie accompany him to the station and watch him while he puts himself in the lockup, but when he transforms he keeps his human consciousness and realises he can control himself, so the pair set about creating a dynamic duo crimefighting team led by the titular hero, riding around town in their hotted up cruiser with an array of weapons, quips and attitude.

There's an appreciable amount of practical effects instead of CGI (owing to the budget, probably), and the cringiest/funniest sex scene you've ever seen, when Jessica the bartender seduces Lou while he's still in his werewolf state – to the actresses' credit, she plays it totally straight, right down to the relaxing post-coital cigarette.

If you're a werewolf aficionado you might be mildly disappointed at yet another werewolf movie that plays way too fast and loose with the classic mythology, but a couple of decent laughs (including one laugh out loud moment when Lou refers to himself as 'the fuzz') and a story that's more than just the gimmick promised in the title carry you the rest of the way.