Posts Tagged ‘Wolfman Movie’

Wolfman is a remake of the 1941 Lon Chaney film, about an American in England who becomes a werewolf. The story of the original is expanded upon as Lawrence is an actor touring London. Here his brother’s fiance, Gwen, writes him informing him of his brothers disappearance. Lawrence returns home to Blackmore, where he reunites with his estranged father, played by Anthony Hopkins. Soon they find his brothers body, which has been ripped apart by and animal. While investigating a Gypsy camp his brother was known to mingle at, he is attacked and bitten by a wolf. Soon he becomes a werewolf himself, and terrorizes the village. Along the way we get flashbacks to his childhood, and learn of the curse on his family, as well as it’s origin.

Werewolf lore is expanded upon, as while still human, Lawrence finds he heals fast, is growing stronger, and his senses are more acute. Before his first transformation, we also get hints of his mind being affected. The silver cane from the original movie is present, but not very important to the story. There’s romantic tension between Gwen and Lawrence. Gwen seeks the Gypsy’s help, hoping to cure Lawrence, but that plot point isn’t expanded upon. Also a bit of crossover is added as a fictional Scotland Yard Detective is present to investigate the murders. It is mentioned that he was on the Jack the Ripper case.

Thankfully the computer effects aren’t overdone. The beginning is a little scary, not so much towards the end. It’s gory too. The Wolfman decapitates, tears off limbs, and leave a bloody mess with each slash of his claws. The gore is kept to brief shots though, making it more effective.
There’s a few odd camera movements, a few parts could have been more scary, but instead it seemed they just tried to make it look cool.

Wolfman has a decent plot to it, but in small parts it could have been better. Little bits of internal logic don’t match, like when we see the villagers preparing silver bullets, but later Wolfman is shot in the shoulder to no effect.  The identities of some of the villagers could have been clearer, and religious themes could have been played out more. Anthony Hopkins plays his father role so distant, that the surprise of his character isn’t much of a surprise.

If this is successful, Universal Studios could relaunch more monster properties like Frankenstein and Dracula. I always thought Universal could make  a shared movie universe with those characters. (Though any studio can do that, as those characters are public domain, and anyone can use werewolves in a general sense.)

Wolfman isn’t a bad movie, it’s just that some parts could have been stronger. 7.5/10