The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf Review

November 4, 2021 at 6:28pm
By Jason Stettner

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is a Netflix Original anime film that fables the life of Vesemir (Theo James) going from poverty to becoming a powerful slayer of beasts. The profession of course, being a Witcher. If you’re familiar with the mainline series you may know of this character, but anyways I’ll provide some brief details background wise.

This takes place well before the time of Geralt, with his mentor in his youth dealing with the creatures of the time while also battling issues from the past. The kingdom is having some issues with a specific type of monster, and now the Witcher has been somewhat called upon to handle these issues.

He has some conflicting issues, but ends up working with a magic user Tetra (Lara Pulver) and the two deal with this issue. While this is very much an origin story for the mentor, it does act as a mystery story too. It’s about figuring out what exactly is going on with the monstrous threat, to solve the problems. It leans into that whole detective angle that is part of what a Witcher’s job entails. That aspect is neat.

The animation quality here is decent, it’s fairly minimalistic but filled with gore and does capture the violence of this universe well. It feels fast paced in terms of the action, but also casts a more romantic light on certain elements which bring a certain level of sorrow to the aspect behind this mentor’s life.

The voice acting is fine, the individuals decently come alive with that and it delivers a solid cast of distinct characters. Just keep in mind that this is a more intimate tale that focuses specifically on Vesemir and his conflicts with multiple factions. The other big aspect of this is his connection to Lady Zerbst (Mary McDonnell) and of course Tetra.

The Conclusion

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is a solid origin story for this side character that feels very much like an intimate one off sort of story. It was a fine viewing, it extends the universe of The Witcher in an intriguing way. It doesn’t necessarily build towards anything else as it felt self-contained, at the same time it was definitely enjoyable.

It does not hold back on the gore and I liked how brutal it could be at times. Particularly with that opening segment. Please do keep in mind that this universe is rather intensive if you’re wondering why I mention the gore elements. Their business in itself is a rather vicious since they do have to hunt down monsters. Anyways, cool action and solid visuals mixed with a neat world for a fine viewing of a time.

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Content Access was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 7.0