The Wolfman

Joe Johnston's The Wolfman is a flawed, but entertaining B-movie filled with A-level production values. It gets a lot of things right. I liked that the film stuck to the classic 19th century London setting of the story. I loved the look of the film, especially the large, imposing mansion house that serves for many of the film's settings. I also enjoyed how the film employed mostly physical effects, using CG mainly when necessary. Given the film's well-documented behind the scenes struggle for control, and the numerous release dates, I expected much worse.

The film opens like any good movie about werewolves should. A lone figure, illuminated only by the lantern her carries and the light of the full moon above him, nervously makes his way through a foggy forest filled with dead trees. He seems frightened, leaping at every shadow around him, until one of those shadows turns out to be the titular beast. The man runs, and the wolf creature makes short work of him. The man's fiance, Gwen (Emily Blunt), writes a letter to his brother, a Shakespearean actor named Lawrence (Belnico Del Toro). She urges him to return to his childhood mansion home to help search for his brother. (At this point, the man's body has not yet been found, and is considered missing.) Lawrence returns home as requested, and we quickly learn that the mansion holds a lot of unpleasant memories for him, most of them surrounding his cold and distant father, Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins). The home itself is equally chilly in its demeanor. It's filled with cavernous halls, a snarling guard dog, and a lot of stuffed and mounted trophy animals, which naturally take on a more ominous shape when the sun goes down.

The body of Lawrence's brother is soon discovered, and when he sees the mutilated state of the corpse, Lawrence becomes obsessed with what kind of man or creature could have done it. The talk at the local tavern seems to point to a mysterious beast that wanders the woods, and may have ties to some traveling gypsies that camp there. Lawrence goes to the gypsies seeking answers, the camp is attacked by the wolf beast, and he is bitten by the monster but survives. From that point, The Wolfman follows a predictable, but never boring path. Lawrence finds himself taking a beast-like form himself whenever there's a full moon, and a series of murders begin cropping up in his wake. An Inspector from Scotland Yard (Hugo Weaving) is called in to investigate, and quickly begins to realize that the clues lead to Lawrence. Gwen begins to develop feelings for Lawrence, but he must do his best to resist, less he harm her. All the while, the owner of the dark mansion stays in the shadows, letting the events play out around him.

It's gothic melodrama that's been put together quite well by a talented team. Despite having limited experience working in the horror genre, director Joe Johnston (Hidalgo) has a knack for atmosphere, and knows how to use gory special effects so that they actually do shock, instead of coming across as exploitive. The production design is excellent all around. The dark manors and foggy moors bring out the right mood, and certainly fit the story better than a more modern setting would. There's even a memorable music score by Danny Elfman, which is subtle enough to not overpower the scenes, but does not fade into the background. All of this is complemented by a fine cast, who help breathe life into some thinly-written characters. Not all are successful (Emily Blunt often comes across as a bore), but Del Toro is brooding and intense, while Weaving finds the right balance of cockiness and stern authority. As for Anthony Hopkins, he seems to be relishing his role as the sinister father figure, who seems to be taking great pleasure in his son's personal suffering.

As mentioned, a majority of the effects to bring the Wolfman to life are done with physical make up effects by Rick Baker. For this, I am grateful. As someone who has been disappointed by CG attempts at werewolves in past films, I appreciated this approach. In fact, it's when the film does switch to CG that the effects start to lose their hold on the audience. There are some questionable shots of the Wolfman himself leaping across rooftops, as well as some laughably obvious attempts at a computer generated bear in one sequence. Fortunately, this doesn't happen enough to take us out of the film. The computer-enhanced transformation sequences at least are effective. The scenes where Lawrence becomes the beast are the obvious money shots, and seem to have gotten the most attention.

The Wolfman isn't about to become a genre classic, or make anyone forget the original film, but it's an effective reboot. It also feels like a necessary one, given how so many classic monsters are now being romanticized as teenage hunks for girls to scream over. Here's a movie that reminds us that werewolves are not young underwear models who walk around with their shirts off. Who says you can't learn anything from the movies?

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