Wellington Paranormal Episode 4 review - Lower Hutt Lycanthrope.

Vampires encounter werewolves on the Wellington waterfront in 'What we do in the shadows' - links to Youtube clip

Although New Zealand has a respectable range of cryptofauna - that is; either animals that are natural but are either thought extinct (moa, etc) or are seen where they're not supposed to be (moose in Fiordland, panthers in Canterbury), or ones that are mythical or supernatural (Goatman, Moehau) - encounters with wolves, natural or otherwise, are pretty thin on the ground here.

The nearest thing I could turn up (with the help of the good folk at New Zealand Cryptids) is this reported encounter of a dog-like, giant biped in the Akatarawa Hills, in the upper Hutt Valley, north of Wellington. So it's fitting, I guess, that tonight's episode of Wellington Paranormal uses Lower Hutt - possibly within the Dog Man's territory - as the location for what is maybe some kind of lycanthrope encounter.

O'Leary: Sir, is there anything you can tell us about this dog?
Pizza delivery guy: Ah, yeah. The dog, it was wearing jeans!

Love the blurry infrared-camera chase through the bush after the werewolf. They pick up a young Maori woman, a victim, they think, and nek minit she's sitting in the middle of the back seat of the cop car. Last time this happened, the young woman was demonically possessed. This time, on the trip back to the Hutt, she's transforming into a werewolf. Things are suddenly looking grim.

O'Leary: Pull over! Pull over!
Minogue: I can't, we're on an overpass.

Once they get Sheena back to the Hutt Valley, and she works out that her ex, Dion - also a werewolf -  was responsible for her being infected with werewolfy-ness (an STD, apparently), what ensues is horrific, horrendous and hilarious. Or just a pretty average night in the Lower Hutt suburb of Naenae, depending on your point of view. Suddenly the credits roll, and we wish the show were longer.

But seriously, for a moment. OK, maybe this is a little picky in the context of a comedy, but I'm not altogether comfortable with the Police characters agreeing to leave what is effectively a domestic violence incident till the next morning, when it's calmed down - the inference being that this is a legitimate response when confronting actual domestic violence between a man and a woman. Both Police characters are portrayed as a bit dim, but this particular piece of humour stumbles over a boundary, in my opinion anyway.

Next week, that other carry-over from 'What we do in the shadows' - you guessed it - vampires!

Not a lot of those in Kiwiland either. I'm guessing fewer even than werewolves. I'll Google it, but ... oh, here we go - Vampire Attack in Wellington, 2010

TV2 doesn't hang about. Episode 4 of Wellington Paranormal is available on demand already.

'Werewolf' always makes for a catchy headline, no matter how far from the truth.