Nothing here to dislike – straight action, cool werewolf makeup effects and a new idea from the lore we all know make this nippy little film a perfectly good time.

That's also thanks in large part to Frank Grillo as hero Wesley, the kind of guy that would have owned video stores a generation ago like Mark Dacascos, Cynthia Rothrock and Brian Bosworth. He's not a fantastic actor, but delivers exactly what it says on the tin with just enough heart and swagger to carry you the whole way.

It's the night of a supermoon, and as the world knows, the last one was a disaster, resulting in a pandemic that turned most of humanity into werewolves, forcing the few who didn't succumb to the mutation to hide indoors and pray the slavering monsters outside wouldn't get in.

When we meet Wesley, he's helping his sister-in-law and niece (the only family he has left after the death of her first-responder husband – his brother – in the last outbreak) finish barricading the house before setting off to work where he's the world's unlikeliest microbiologist working on a cure.

The powers that be think they have a vaccine, but they need to test it, so after locking several volunteers in cages in the lab, dosing them up and opening the roof of the facility to let the moon in, everyone crosses their fingers.

The vaccine works, but only temporarily, and when it all goes awry, Wesley and several colleagues are running for their lives, escaping out into a city overrun with monsters.

At the same time, the gun-toting ex-soldier neighbour back home is attacked and bitten, and when he turns, he becomes determined to make Wesley's sister-in-law and niece his dinner, and the house is besieged.

Wesley faces two ticking clocks – the vaccine is sparing he and co-worker Amy (Katrina Law) for only so long, and he knows he has to get home to save his family. It's the inciting incident in a desperate flight home that takes up most of the film, one set piece of escape, action, fear or hiding after another.

It's not Shakespeare so nobody here is vying for Oscars, but every element adheres perfectly with the USP of the film. The performances and script are perfect for the material, and director Steven C. Miller even has the talent to include some visual flourishes that elevate a very B-grade thriller, like the Iron Man-style helmet HUD displays during the initial breakout sequence.

It doesn't overstay its welcome, is full of scrappy charisma, and while it's not quite up there with the holy trinity of Dog Soldiers, The Howling or An American Werewolf in London, it's a pleasure and a relief to watch a werewolf movie that doesn't suck.