With audiences in the last few years being bombarded with a slew of vampire flicks it comes as a welcome change that 2010 started as a year for the werewolf. The Wolfman landed on DVD last week and the @rcade had to take a look and see what all the howling was about.
Starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt among others, The Wolfman focuses mainly on Del Toro’s character Lawrence Talbot and his relationship with his reclusive father Sir John Talbot played superbly by Hopkins. The younger Talbot returns to his home in the English countryside after spending a long time in America. His return is reluctant, but when his brother’s fiancee Gwen Conliffe tracks him down to help find her missing love he feels obligated to go home. Upon his arrival, he discovers that his homeland has been plagued with vicious attacks carried out by a creature, or a man, with incredible strength and a seemingly insatiable bloodlust. Some of the locals are calling it the return of the accursed werewolf, or wolfman. On top of this, a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Abberline, played by Hugo Weaving, is here to investigate the murders. As the attacks grow more ferocious, it is up to Lawrence and Abberline to uncover the truth behind them and put an end to them once and for all.
The story itself isn’t anything new. We’ve heard it before for sure, and the creators of The Wolfman are well aware of that fact. As a big budget remake of the 1941 movie of the same name, The Wolfman feels like a modern dedication to the B movie horrors of 19th century cinema instead of a fresh take on an old subject. The only apparent difference between the two is the significant amount of better resources that director Joe Johnston had compared to his 1941 counterpart, George Waggner. The poignant backdrop of English hills and dales adds quite a dark and gothic atmosphere to the movie. The Talbot home is especially haunting. Danny Elfman provides another impressive soundtrack that creates the necessary tension and suspense required in any good horror movie.
As for the cast, everyone plays their individual parts nicely. The supposed ‘chemistry’ between Blunt’s Ms Conliffe and Del Toro’s younger Talbot isn’t half as interesting as it should be though. Thankfully, Del Toro redeems himself with the way he bounces off Hopkins in their roles as father and son. The tension between the two alpha males is deliciously palpable and makes for an engaging watch. Hugo Weaving’s inspector Abberline is disappointedly left on the sidelines for a good chunk of the movie however.
The Wolfman is a surprisingly gory movie for its 16s rating. There’s plenty of head lobbing, throat slashing, and intestine spilling, and as out of place as it may feel, the use of excessive brutality just makes for more fun times if you ask us! The make-up department deserve a special mention here for their work on the actual wolf man. The concept is less Twilighty, oversized tween mutt, more old school horror, Bela Lugosi type special effects, which is always a plus in the @rcade office!
All in all, The Wolfman is definitely worth a look, but viewer be warned, it sometimes felt like a very, very long movie. We found that your patience was certainly rewarded in the second act though. A good effort for sure, we can’t wait to see how Johnston handles the director’s chair in Captain America next.
