It’s a sign of the times that horror movies these days are mostly horror comedies. Vampires, werewolves, aliens, and serial killers are firmly in the realm of camp because they no longer possess the ability to frighten. Consequently, there aren’t many good horror movies these days either – Underworld, Van Helsing (saved only by the musculature of Hugh Jackman), Ultraviolet, Blade and even Saw seem to play better as homages to the genre, if not outright parodies.
But maybe it’s time we looked back to the old masters like Curt Siodmark, who wrote the screenplay to the original h in 1941, when horror was actually horrifying. And maybe it’s time we ditched the copious CGI too. Why not bring back prosthetics and actual fur make-up? And while we’re at it, why not a screenplay that’s a close adaptation of the original 1941 story, played straight as though the last 4 decades of horror film (and horror comedies) never happened?
Done, done, and done! Benicio del Toro now plays the hapless inheritor of the werewolf curse, a very depressed-looking actor with a history of daddy issues caused by the reclusive Sir Talbot (a restrained but still loopy Anthony Hopkins, sans fava beans and chianti). Young Talbot is on a mission to solve the mystery of his brother’s recent death and a string of eviscerations around Talbot Manor, while finding a way to cure the curse before Hugo Weaving’s Inspector Francis captures him in werewolf form or before he is driven bonkers by his dad.
Does The Wolfman succeed? Well, I sure wasn’t laughing in the cinema. I was more entranced by the copious gore, and by the curious effect of seeing old school horror film prosthetics in this day and age. Granted, modern day make-up and prosthetics technology has improved and the director did use CGI for some action scenes, but the werewolf design and transformation sequences were a reminder that old school formula and techniques can still work.
As for the story itself, I’m glad that it wasn’t at all campy, but it felt so staid and uninspiring, it could have induced somnolence in the cast itself, if not for the occasional werewolf sequences.