Ruben on his American werewolf in New York

Josh Ruben is very much a New York filmmaker. But while the DC native lives in Brooklyn, the mindset and locations of his movies could not be farther removed from the Big Apple. His acclaimed debut “Scare Me” and his new adaptation of the video game “Werewolves Within” take place upstate.

When I contacted him by phone to talk about the latter, he was leaving America’s biggest city.

“Currently, I’m driving up the FDR [parkway] in New York, the day after our Tribeca premiere to go see my family upstate and to look at wedding venues with my fiancee,” he said.

The rural settings for his movies are effective for his blend of chills and chuckles. People in small towns can be supportive, but they must tolerate each other even if the experience isn’t pleasant. In this sort of environment, long-simmering tensions can be just as lethal as anything supernatural.

At times, it’s tempting to wonder if there are any lycanthropes in the movie.

“When I pitched on directing the film, I expressed how personal being a small town kid is and was. I come from a small town like this. I worked at a gas station. I knew who the tow truck driver was. The truck driver knew which locals were swingers, which locals were racists, which locals had money. I also knew how they took to newcomers. We weren’t a racist town. We were a very liberal town. I was familiar with the towns where if you were a newcomer, you were looked at a certain way. Your existence was kind of questioned,” he explained.

These memories helped Ruben when he selected Sam Richardson (“Detroiters,” “Veep”) as his leading man. Richardson is Black, so Finn, the park ranger he plays in “Werewolves Within” already feels like an outcast. Finn has arrived in a town that is prone to power failures, burning political disputes and environmental problems. Maybe a few wolf people might help. After all, Finn and his offscreen girlfriend have broken up.

“We have a Black man entering a town. He’s already a kind pushover. He has to enact some modicum of authority. He wants people not only to get along but to live,” Ruben said. “In casting, there was no question going with an actor like Sam. This is a movie about outsiders. There’s not a lot you need to say or do other than to let this actor do his thing and let the stakes be what they are. Sam can play vulnerable, and he’s such a wonderful presence.”

Similarly, he cast Milana Vayntrub as a local mail carrier who seems to know the town a little too well.

If her name isn’t familiar, you’ve probably seen Vayntrub in AT&T commercials reminding you that their data and phone plans are supposed to be simple. According to Ruben, however, the actor’s work isn’t. In “Werewolves Within,” Vaynrub demonstrates that she can also scare users into phone subscriptions they wouldn’t want.

“I’ve known Milana for close to a decade. Everyone in the comedic world knows how much of a comedic genius she is. I like to give (actors) an opportunity to show people they can do more than what they’re asked for. With Michael Chernus (“Orange Is the New Black”), who often plays lovable wingmen and everyday dudes, here’s an opportunity for him to play a creep,” Ruben explained.

Because of the chaos around him, Richardson plays the role with some restraint. When asked about what sort of tone or genre “Werewolves Within” belongs to, he replies, “It’s a combination. Mishna Wolff’s script reads like ‘Arachnophobia’ and ‘Fargo’ had a baby. We have several comedic leads.”

He added, “You look at something like ‘An American Werewolf in London,’ which is similar for many reasons. With this and ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ you can cast comedic actors to play realistic situations with actual terror. There were some times during the filming folks were requesting logic, and I said, ‘You know what the reasoning is? It’s a comic book movie. It’s a video game adaptation.”

Most of the post-pandemic big screen offerings are sequels to properties so established, they might as well be carved in stone. Ruben says the reason he and filmmakers like Jordan Peele can tweak genres is that they can do it for modest sums.

In “Scare Me,” for example, the cast can be counted on the fingers of a single hand. Ruben even plays the lead in that one. As a result, he and his cohorts can make movies that don’t fit easily into a single category.

Ruben said, “The check (for ‘Werewolves Within’) was written by Ubisoft (the company behind the game) in that kind of Blumhouse model (“Get Out,” etc.), where the financial risk is low, but we can make something interesting. We had a wonderful international sales office after that. People are excited to go for a ride, to be scared and to have a laugh.”