The Wolfman (2010) – Review

Terrible things Lawrence, you’ve done terrible things.

The werewolf genre has gotten pretty stale in recent years, mostly focusing on werewolves rather than wolfmen, and if there was any one entity that could put a much needed shot of vigor back into this genre, it is Universal Studios. Seemingly long absent from their bread-and-butter horror genre, the champions of Old World, creaky, atmospheric genre pictures from yesteryear (as in the 1930′s and 1940′s) gave the thumbs up for a remake of one of the better titles from their heyday, The Wolf Man - now oddly titled The Wolfman. Now, a lot has changed in the world and in film making technology since 1941, but the appearance of a Victorian setting with updated FX work by the wolf and ape master, Rick Baker pretty much justified this film credentials in our remake happy film world of today. But with constant delays, rumors of studio frustration, and endless re-shoots, could something glorious be howled at?

It’s tough to come up with a short answer for this film, as a quick and easy assessment is a hard realization to come too, because for every moment that The Wolfman works, it also fails. I don’t know if those production hardships are to blame, since in my opinion, this film is spectacular to look at. What works immediately is what we came for: the Rick Baker make-up FX. It has been long known that after his Oscar-winning and genre-defining work on 1981′s An American Werewolf in London, that Baker has longed for another chance at doing a werewolf picture, preferably The Wolf Man remake. His signing to do this film, gave this remake an instant blessing in our digital day and age, something our horror hearts could be excited for. I imagine he has been secretly working on this project well before it got the go-ahead from Universal, as Baker is a vet, a legend, but most importantly, a fan. He wanted to honor the Lon Chaney, Jr. and Jack Pierce legacy, and he has done just that.

His work is astounding. The full body FX on Benicio Del Toro (Che) is breath-taking and just is simply awesome. Subject of much fan debate was the transformation scenes, something Baker won an Oscar for in 1981 for An American Werewolf in London. So was he going old school prosthetic with it, or CGI? Well, it’s CGI and while he supervised over the digital FX, they’re pretty average in final rendering, neither bad nor superb, which is a little bit of a letdown due to his real FX work. Regardless, his FX work is second to none, and all that was really needed was a decent playground for the work to be showcased. Outside of the decent cast, the beautiful 1890′s costumes and set design, the script is the biggest flaw. Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self’s script is a hollow, lifeless form, unable to get us involved with the characters, who are all one-dimensional, as is the drama, for there is none.

Joe Johnston delivers a solid looking film, as he is a fine journeyman director, but with such a meandering and possibly boring script, the film really fails to generate any sort of excitement or scares. Most scenes come and go with no establishing motivations, set-ups, or life to them. They appear then cut to next scene. No rhythm or flow. Editing doesn’t help this either, as the collection of editors rush everything, except for the climax that finally finds some emotional connections with us and the film, if you’re still with it by then. The Wolfman largely feels like a greatest hits package of a better The Wolfman film we didn’t get to see. With an out-of-place homage o the pub scene in John Landis’ masterpiece An American Werewolf in London, the film honors the wrong film, as the ode to the Golden Age of Horror Cinema, is a flat comeback.

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