Kill Or Be Killed: The Wolfman (2010)

It's been said that, finally, the vampire trend that has dominated the pop culture landscape for the last few years is finally reaching its close. Its successor? The werewolf story.

Leading the pack of the upcoming crop of werewolf films is The Wolfman, a remake of the classic 1941 movie of the same name. While this version of The Wolfman deviates from the original in major plot points, each story starts off basically the same. Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro), the son of a wealthy Englishman, has lived in America for years, making a living as a Shakespearean actor. He has a slightly tense relationship with his father (Anthony Hopkins), and the two have not spoken for some time. It is not until his brother's mysterious disappearance that Lawrence is drawn back to his childhood home.

The home he returns to is a large mansion, covered in dust and cobwebs and dripping with atmosphere. The mansion itself is a perfect example of The Wolfman's visual style. Every floor tile and brick is made to look weathered, worn, and dusty. The colors are vivid and bold, with every setting making a statement, yet blending perfectly into one another. The green plains of the English countryside transition neatly into the dusky interiors of the Talbot estates which meld with the sterile whites of a mental asylum. All in all, the world of The Wolfman looks fantastic. It is exactly the kind of setting where one would could imagine monsters prowling about under the moonlight.

The gore and creature effects, generally, look pretty good too. Lawrence's bone-crunching transformation sequences are my favorite moments in the entire movie. The grinding noises as the bones snap and rearrange themselves, combined with the visual of his hands, feet, and jaws, growing and forming into something inhuman, were very effective. The gore, while not shockingly new or original, worked well enough, and there were a few great moments of action and destruction during the Wolfman's nighttime rampages. Lawrence Talbot's first night as a werewolf, in particular, was a wild, well-executed action sequence that culminated in a fearsome decapitation.

Unfortunately, it is when the action stops, and the talking starts that things start to get boring. The detail that is visible in the character's surrounding environments, isn't found in the plot line. While we see characters fearfully casting silver bullets and locking their doors at night, we never get a great sense of the roots of the town's fears and superstitions. Does everyone in the town believe in werewolves, or is it merely an underground superstition? How far back does the town's relationship with monsters go, and how deeply rooted is their superstition? I realize that it is implied that the small town folk believe in werewolves, while the more educated elite view these superstitions as delusions. Still, I would have liked more detail as to how and why such beliefs came to be.

Similarly, most of the characters came across as a bit one-dimensional. While Benicio Del Toro's weathered face seems like a perfect fit for a heavily stylized monster film of this type, his acting mostly felt flat and unemotional. Anthony Hopkins' character made for an interesting villain, but needed to be fleshed out more. He was interesting in that he reveled in things that his son detested, making him a great contrast to our lead character. The problem is, I never really got a good sense of why he took such great pleasure in the darker side of life, other than the fact that it added an extra twist to the storyline, and allowed for an extra fight scene. The one character I did enjoy here was a Scotland Yard investigator, played by Hugo Weaving. He was delightfully sarcastic, and perfectly believable amongst the fog of the English countryside.

While The Wolfman has its faults, it also has its strengths. It's not the new definitive werewolf movie, but it's no Twilight either. Those who venture out to the theaters to see it are in for an enjoyable, yet occasionally frustrating experience. That said, those who are truly interested should make the trip to see it, if only to witness bone-crunching transformations on the big screen, and in stereo sound.