by: JohnSoister
Posted on 02.17.10 in All Horror Films > Werewolf
Release Date: 2010

If the commercial success of 2009’s Paranormal Activity taught us anything, it’s the Power of Suggestion.  Utilizing every penny of his meager $15,000 budget, writer/director Oren Peli effectively hammered home the point that “less is more” when he managed to tantalize viewers’ imaginations and terrify audiences using nothing but practical special effects and a little ingenuity.

Unfortunately for fans of The Wolfman, Universal Pictures misinterpreted the “less is more” concept to mean less substance, less story, less continuity, less suspense, less… well, less everything… except gore.  What director Joe Johnston’s remake of the 1941 Universal classic lacks in coherent plot, character development, and rudimentary editing it makes up for with breakneck pacing and miles of small intestines.

That’s not a winning combination.

Unlike the original – wherein scenes actually played out and audiences were able to acquaint themselves with the characters – Johnston’s version is less a movie and more a manic succession of inter-spliced images overlaid with snippets of cringe-worthy dialogue.   According to Johnston, seventeen minutes of additional footage (largely comprised of finishing touches to existing scenes) “had been removed during the third editing pass to push the story along so that audiences would get to the first Wolfman transformation sooner.”  (Said transformation, disappointingly, is completely rendered in pulse-deadening CGI.)

As a result, the film never has a chance to breath.   Key plot-points fall flat and sequences meant to build tension collapse in on themselves as if the meat of the film’s performances were left on the cutting room floor.  Speaking of meat, a horror film completely devoid of suspense is just not scary and, when it seems that characters are introduced solely to be ground up into puppy chow seconds later, it’s almost impossible for the viewer to care.  Thus, the disemboweled, dismembered, and disfigured bodies that litter the ground following the endlessly repetitive Wolfman attacks barely elicit a shrug from the audience.

When all is said and done, it’s Universal’s drive to update not only the plot but also the presentation that causes The Wolfman inevitably to disappoint:  the choreographed wire-works finale is so cheesy it would make Ang Lee wince.  Older fans who fondly remember the original are likely to be turned off by the remake’s excessive gore, while younger audiences watching this film won’t have any inkling why the 1941 classic was so beloved.

Sadly, what could have been a truly great horror movie has, instead, become just another indication that contemporary attention-spans cannot process the luxury of characterization, while modern sensibilities are ill-formed to deal with subtlety.  Perhaps we’ll have to wait for Hammer to set things aright.

• ★★★★★

  Acting:

• ★★★★★

  Blood:

• ★★★★★

  Violence:

• ★★★★★

  Partying:

• ★★★★★

  Language:

• ★★★★★

  Humor:

• ★★★★★

  Predictable:

• ★★★★★

  Girls:

• ★★★★★

  Gore:

• ★★★★★

  Sexuality:

• ★★★★★

  Torture:

• ★★★★★

  Overall:

Kevin, I totally agree, and this is a great review. I was actually pretty excited about this--I love the idea of "the beast in man" question and think that the werewolf is such a great way to explore that, but this movie totally failed to do anything interesting. And how campy was Anthony Hopkins? And how bored was Benicio Del Toro?

Exactly! Well said Kfear! If they explored that last concept you mentioned, I think the film would have been 1,000 x better. Honestly, I was expecting a much more character-driven piece when I first sat down and I was sorely disappointed at the lack of any such development.

Something must be said about London in this film. It looks incredible, but yet seems so dark and dreary. Wolfman comes with enough to keep most audience members going home happy, but for some, it's too much Hollywood and not enough of what made the original such an iconic film. It would have been so much better if they just stuck with the premise a bit more closely. When is a man just a man, and when is a man a beast? Something like that...