The Wolfman (2010)

Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. His father sent him from the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor to an insane asylum, then he goes to America. When his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns to his father's estate to learn that his brother's mauled body has been found. Reunited with his estranged father, Lawrence sets out to find his brother's killer... and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Someone or something with brute strength and insatiable blood lust has been killing the villagers, and a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline comes to investigate.

Pretty much what I expected. Dark, moody, hairy, and violent. Like your Uncle Lester, only in the 1900’s. The first thing you’ll notice is that Del Toro has obviously become romantically involved with his dialect coach, as there is very little trace of his thick, Latin accent. The hot bloodedness, however, remains. Citizenry are systematically maimed, shredded, and beheaded. Not for the squeamish. Story? Meh. It’s spooky monster writing 101 here, but with better special effects.

Subtitled: "How to Make A Boring Horror Movie". If you don't already know all about werewolves and this story, happy sixth birthday and mom and dad shouldn't allow you to watch this. For the rest of you, it's The Wolfman, again. This gets 3 stars for the updated and pretty good effects. At least the stuff you can actually see.I get it, he only comes out at night but come on. It ain't scary if you can't tell what's going on. Of course, for some reason I'll never understand, you can't make a horror movie about a ravenous creature running around killing and mutilating people unless you have some kind of love story going on and a father-son relationship to explore. Hello no, you can't expect to hold an audience's interest just by having a monster slashing and hacking people in graphic detail. Obviously you need a story to hold everything together but, in this version it's almost like the guy happens to be werewolf. Out of the 103 minutes run time, maybe 30 minutes actually involve the creature. There's a lot of talking about the creature, a lot of contrived set-ups, way too much back story, and just plain filler. By the time something happens you're more relieved then scared. But, as I said, the effects are pretty good and the sets and period piece is fine if you're in to that sort of thing. Just enough happens to keep you from dozing off but not enough to keep you entertained.


***/*****

3/5 Stars