Stargate Theatre - Wyvern
Stargate Theatre
Wyvern
Welcome to the new episode of Stargate Theatre part of the Stargate Archives podcast and this week I am looking at the 2009 monster movie “Wyvern” which debuted on the Scifi channel Jan 31st of that year. The movie is set in the small Alaskan town of Beaver Mills which is a couple of days away from summer solstice and the ending of two months of continuous daylight. Climate change is shrinking the glaciers and as one tumbles into the ocean the Wyvern is released, it seeks out a source of food and finds a feeding ground and nesting site around Beaver Mills.
The movie begins with the first kill as the Wyvern munches on a local fisherman played by Dave Ward (our first Stargate actor) and then spends some time in Beaver Mills especially the local cafe introducing the bulk of the characters. Colonel Travis played by the late Don S. Davis is the next local to have contact with the Wyvern when a moose head falls into his hot tub. The lives of the townsfolk continue to come under threat as the Wyvern begins to feed and build its nest and Doc Yates ( David Lewis ) is the next to fall foul of the beast. To be honest the plot of the movie is pretty generic but works thanks to some good casting and acting as well as perfectly fine monster CGI, not great but good for the time. The choice to make this a small town helps in the story telling backed by the idea that a lot of the town goes south as two months of daylight is not great for the psyche. When they need locals to populate the festival crowd they spend the money to get them but hey there is a great big monster so the next scene there is just blood everywhere, it’s great when plot aligns wonderfully with production budget. The two leads of the movie Jake and Claire ( Nick Chinlund & Erin Karpluk ) work well together, definite chemistry there and Jake the outsider has a good if limited backstory which actually plays a part in the salvation of the town if not the world. Without going into too much detail townsfolk die often in gruesome ways, heroic attempts fail but eventually working together there are survivors although explaining the events of the last few days may be tricky for them.
Wyvern has a number of actors who we’ve seen in Stargate and the overall production is pretty impressive for a movie in this budget and genre. While the movie may not live beyond cult or genre fan range one thing it does have is the soundtrack which was composed by Pinar Toprak who went on to much bigger and better things including Krypton, Stargirl and Captain Marvel. I will highly recommend the movie for all the reasons mentioned and even the DVD is well presented but lacking features and a HD version has appeared on various streaming services.
Thanks again for listening to the show, I hope you check out the movie and if you do let me know what you thought. If you want to join me on the podcast to talk about a “b” movie with some Stargate connections or even a Stargate episode itself then get in touch and we can arrange a time to chat. You can find us on various social media platforms and podcasts portals so any ratings and/or reviews are always welcome. Take care and keep watching Stargate.
