"The Wolfman"
(2010, Joe Johnston, UK/USA)
Average Contributor Rating:

The stock of the American horror film has fallen considerably since its 1930s heyday. Outside of a smattering of films (the Scream sequels, Saw, M. Night Shyamalan’s films post-Sixth Sense), the attitude of American studios to the contemporary American horror film has been one of relative disinterest, treating them as padding for a larger seasonal release schedule or opportunities to make a quick buck on cheap straight-to-DVD franchises. However, in American cinema’s current blizzard of remakes and the surprise successes of Saw, Paranormal Activity and the like, it was only a matter of time before studios came full circle and saw the horror film as an opportunity to print money. Thus we are provided with Universal’s The Wolfman, based on a classic horror film from the days when Universal horrors ruled the roost.

Benicio Del Toro, who is a worthy successor, in appearance at least, to Lon Chaney’s horror crown, plays Lawrence Talbot, an American actor drawn to the home of his childhood when his brother is killed by a werewolf. It’s not long before Lawrence is bitten, and with that inevitable plot turn, shit goes down. It’s a timeless concept, and writers Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) and David Self (Road to Perdition) give it a fair stab, capturing the slightly erratic energy of the classic Universal horrors while providing interesting characters in Lawrence and his supporting cast. However, the script is only as good as the director makes it, and unfortunately for The Wolfman, Joe Johnston is not a very good director. The man who mangled Jurassic Park III directs in a largely workmanlike fashion, his period designs unimaginative, his lighting schemes unoriginal, and his reliance on ‘bus’ scares unappealing. There are flourishes of style here and there – the deliberately painful transformation sequences; the heavily-stylised asylum montage – but Johnston lacks the imagination and style that Mark Romanek, the director Johnston replaced on this film, has in spades.

Of course, Johnston’s not the only one at fault here. Appearance-wise, Del Toro is excellently cast, his pitted features and dark, wounded eyes perfect for the role of a man afflicted by both lycanthropy and childhood woes. However, he often feels as if he’s going through the motions, and is frequently uninvolving, doing his character a great disservice. Meanwhile, in his role as Del Toro’s father, Anthony Hopkins appears to have decided that he is above acting, and recites his lines as though he were reading a recipe book while making dinner. While Emily Blunt gives a strong performance as Talbot’s potential love interest, and Hugo Weaving hams it up accordingly as the policeman on the case, they can only go so far to mitigate the damage caused by the two lazy lead performances.

The Wolfman is a fitfully entertaining, interesting film, and you can say what you will about bus scares, but they get you jumping. However, this iteration of the werewolf myth feels worn, derivative, and a little flat, making it an unfortunate disappointment this summer (New Zealand summer, that is). . AG.