REVIEW : WOLF MAN

[number six]

Broken record time.. what does a movie need to be good? Investment in the characters and plot. What does a horror movie need? Tension.

So here we are with Wolf Man a film that understands neither of these things.

Plot is simple, family moves out to middle of nowhere farm house.. only they apparently didn't know it was full of werewolves despite the father having grown up there and been attacked by said werewolves as a kid in the opening sequence.

If that was the only problem with this movie it might have been serviceable but its just the start. The father gets scratched early on and the film just devolves into a slow boring metamorphosis with him eventually turning into a werewolf.. well not like a normal werewolf more like a hairy guy with an underbite. There are a few neat sequences here with 'werewolf vision' giving us insight into how the werewolves perceive the world but that's about as interesting as the myth building gets. Think of Cronenbergs The Fly only not interesting.

With the father unable to speak due to his increasing lycanthropy about 30 minutes in the crux of the file falls on Julia Garner's wife character only she does the entire film as if she's on heavy doses of Prozac. There's never any real sense of danger or excitement it just plays out in the most flat and mundane way humanly possible. They try to throw in an obvious twist towards the end but it all plays out about how you would expect.

The sad part is I think there was a good movie here but the lifeless direction and lack of any sense of dread or urgency destroys it. The only other film I've seen by the director was Upgrade which I now only remember for being equally forgettable.

Bottom line.. it's a rainy day and you've got nothing to do and want to watch a werewolf movie.. just put on An American Werewolf in London again.. you'll be better off.

[number six]

I scanned back to my review of Upgrade and found this:

I guess it doesn't matter too much but I feel there was a really good movie buried in all this instead of the OK one we got.

It's funny how things do not change

I think the takeaway is Director/Writer Leigh Whannel should stick to writing and not directing.

[tufnel1530]

Welcome to digital.. now everyone is a "director" and nobody bothers to edit their work.

I have not a clue why anyone would think its a good idea to remake the Wolfman or Dracula or any of that shit thats already been done 250 times (and better than could be done now).

You would have to bring something completely original to it which of course they didn't.

I'll see just about anything new but this one I had zero interest in, even the trailer wasn't compelling.

[number six]

Welcome to digital.. now everyone is a "director" and nobody bothers to edit their work.

I have not a clue why anyone would think its a good idea to remake the Wolfman or Dracula or any of that shit thats already been done 250 times (and better than could be done now).

You would have to bring something completely original to it which of course they didn't.

I'll see just about anything new but this one I had zero interest in, even the trailer wasn't compelling.

Well I mean the Nosferatu remake was really well done so you can do it.. but this wasn't it.

[tufnel1530]

Nosferatu was a nice looking movie.

Wouldn't call it good overall though and it added zero to the original story. You knew what was going to happen every step of the way...

Only fairly recent movie I can think of that had something different to offer as a "re-make" was Godzilla minus one. I think the only magic there was that had an actual story line not just action.

People seem to love Anora also and I thought that was a pile (good lead actress but a dumbass movie) so what do I know.