The Wolfman (2010)
“Terrible things Lawrence, you’ve done terrible things”
I am not typically a fan of remakes and new school takes to old school stories, but in cases like The Wolfman you have to keep an open-mind. You absolutely must see this if you are a horror/gore fan as Director Joe Johnston has given us a reason to fear the hairy monster once again. Benicio Del Toro is a perfect fit for the role of Lawrence Talbot and Anthony Hopkins steals the show with his clever lines, timely delivery and creepy visage. But it isn’t the actors that will make you see this, no it is the wolfman himself. Let’s face it, out of all the movie monsters that we have all grown up knowing – the wolfman was always the most unimpressive and least frightening of the bunch. For decades we have been shown and reminded as to how scary a vampire (Dracula) is and even Frankenstein. Yet when we think of the wolfman, we think of Michael J. Fox’s Teen Wolf, or Wolfman Jack from the 60′s. While werewolves in general have been brought back ferociously by the Underworld series and a few SyFy shows. None of these attempts will make you respect the wolfman like this does.
The creature, wow, the creature is all muscle and power. When he runs he gets down on all fours, but when he stalks he walks like a man. The most frightening aspect of him is the change, bones break and reconnect to adjust, the pupils dilate and change color and the hair is forced out in a violent manner. When Talbot changes you cannot help but feel sorry for him because it looks so painful. While movies in the past have tried to convey this agonizing situation, with the advent of CGI and attention to detail, The Wolfman shows us the transformation in a most convincing way. See unlike vampire movies where you leave saying “I want to be a vampire”, The Wolfman makes you leave the theater knowing that if the beast comes for you, getting bitten and living would be the worst thing that could happen to you.
Joe Johnston is a CGI master when it comes to animals, so it is a given that the wolfman not only looks realistic but looks scary as all hell too. I must re-iterate that the gore is beyond anything that you are imagining it will be as the claws on the muscular beast are akin to a bear’s. Not sure if you’ve seen what bears can do to human flesh when pissed off, but watching this movie reminded me quickly of that. And if you are one of these horror fans that have been pissed off at Hollywood’s insistence on care-bearing the violence to get a PG-13 rating, no worries here, the blood flows thick, it flows thick indeed. That being said, the ultimate downer to this movie is the all too familiar “dark foreboding setting” with the cinematography. It seems to be the hardest aspect of classic horror for directors to convey. The town, forest and even Talbot’s mansion felt like a Set. The gray days and dark nights contrasted by the overly large full moon was cartoonish and where the forest should have been the ultimate source of fear, it made zero impact.
What would have made The Wolfman better is if we would have been given a chance to warm up to Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) and his father Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins) a bit more. The characters were very direct, and seemed placed strictly to carry the movie through faithfully without any tender moments to allow us familiarity with them. The story felt like a comic book, it introduced us to the characters, let us know why they are the way they are and then it ended. For this I will say that you should not expect a grand wolf of a tale when you go in to see this. It is quite obvious that you are meant to keep your eye on the wolfman and not his victims or his environment. The wolfman jumps from roof to roof, he decapitates, he maims, he devours flesh and story be damned, he is one impressive beast!
STAR RATING: (7/10) ★★★★★★★★★★
Filed under Horror, Thriller · Tagged with anthony hopkins, benicio del toro, emily blunt, gore, joe johnston, remake, violence, werewolves, wolfman
I was impressed by the ending fight scene in the film. Badass. Worth the price of the ticket alone.
I saw the twist coming a mile away.
A little over gory at times but good. My review for it should be up soon.
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