Does Your Wolfman Bite? That Is Not My Wolfman.

I entered the cinema with high hopes, yet low expectations, for Universal's reworking of The Wolfman. I'm not a classic horror fan, an ardent werewolf follower or an admirer of director Joe Johnson's work (although I do enjoy horror films, werewolf stories, and Joe Johnson's The Rocketeer). Also, with all the behind the scenes drama, including the director replaced two weeks before filming, poor test screenings, major re-shoots, a complete musical re-score, er twice, and some negative reviews leading up to it's release, things didn't look good.

Fortunately, The Wolfman managed to stalk me as it's prey and take me down...a delighted and happy putter. What has emerged isn't a drama of great depth or an adaptation of great intelligence...but a lavish, gothic horror movie that maintains it's credibility thanks to the sterling efforts of all involved..despite the fuck ups during production.

The cast are all excellent. Benecio Del Toro is perfectly cast as the title character, Lawrence Talbot. He presents an intense, serious minded fellow who always seems very grounded and well rounded. Del Toro subtly shows us the mans desires and fears without making it silly or over the top. The rest of the cast follow suit with the gorgeous Emily Blunt, as Gwen (Talbot's brother's widow), doing the reserved, stiff-upper-lip thing as well. For both actors, it's whats going on behind the eyes that sells their characters. Anthony Hopkins, surprisingly and impressively underplays it too, in an eccentric role where a triple serving of ham could have been ordered instead. Entertainingly, it's Hugo Weaving, as the London Rozzer, who dips his toe into a more distinctive acting style; like his Agent Smith portrayal, Weaving plays it serious and restrained...but with an instinctive knack for the the timing of his lines and the intonation of his line readings.

But it's the style of The Wolfman that remains in the memory. Like the acting it's mostly played straight...but has a layer of the hyper-real and fantasy, gothic stylisation to the sumptuous production design and photography. There's a graphic, bleak, black & white feel to the movie that's enriched by some textured set dressing, may it be the vines that crawl over the decaying Talbot manor house or grubby carpets and dusty ornaments that cover it's interior. Other stylisations include the larger-than-life full moon and the speeded-up clouds (reminiscent of the Blade movie) that dominate the sky scape. It's the first step towards Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (if you were to take 9 more steps, of course).

In this heightened reality the old-fashioned, classic, 1940's Wolfman design works well. It's quite a camp look that would backfire if played absolutely for real. But in the fine line the director has chosen between fantasy horror and reality, the creature convinces. Helping are some early scenes of creature carnage which sees the lightning fast wolf tear apart a gypsy encampment and it's residents. A later attack sequence keeps the wolfman in the shadows, making the gory, internal organ strewn massacres even more effective. Rick Baker's makeup effects are as impressive as you'd expect while the CGI transformations don't disappoint for the most part. Only the close ups of the creature's eyes during transformations betray the digital illusion (it seems James Cameron hasn't yet passed on his solution to the dead-eyed CG thespian he pioneered on Avatar).

Perhaps due to the dreadful test screenings, the film has been ruthlessly edited down to a pretty fast pace. It gets down to business from the start and doesn't muck around when it comes to meeting the characters and getting to the wolf stuff. The downside is that we don't get much in the way of character depth or much exploration into the psychology of what it must be, to become a werewolf. But the upped pace does provide a compulsive piece of period horror that perhaps would become diluted if more chat were injected into the mix. A longer cut would be of interest to see how it plays out.
The film has a simple three act structure to keep audience interest up, with the first (set around the country manor) being the most engaging, the second (a trip to London) opens the scope up considerably and allows for a huge rooftop chase, while the final confrontation feels like it's going through the motions to wrap up the story in an all too predictable way.

But this is damned good fun in a film where all the money is up on the screen. Johnson films can tend to bore (Jurassic Park III is painfully dull, as is the terrible Hildago) but here he mixes the drama, horror and action in a well judged mix. With today's technology obsessed youth market it's refreshing to see a period horror movie on a big scale. Consider me bitten.