I must confess that when I begun watching horror seriously, I didn’t look forward to delving into the subgenre of werewolf cinema. The concept just didn’t seem that appeasing to me for whatever reason. However, I have been pleasantly surprised to date with most every notable work involving Lycanthropy up to this time. The metaphors implemented alongside the werewolf in films such as The Wolf Man, The Howling, An American Werewolf in London, Dog Soldiers, and Ginger Snaps have passed with above average grades in my book which, by ratio, the category fairs better than most other subgenres in the field.
Michael Wadleigh, who is best known for his cinematic presentation of Woodstock, presents us with an adult drama based around werewolves. Well, not exactly werewolves per se but rather, an ecological, political, economic, and racial assessment of our treatment of such topics epitomized via the figure of the wolf.
This said, I was boggled after having finished the film at who exactly was the target audience for such a work in that the horror crowd doesn’t typically have patience for adult dramas which are deliberately (i.e. slowly) paced atop very subtle acting via Albert Finney’s return to Hollywood since 1977. About three-quarters of the way through the film I had the impression that Wadleigh was going to pull a Tourneur and keep the antagonist(s) hidden throughout but we do see a pack of wolves by the end (but never in a gratuitous manner).
In relation to its peers during the time, The Howling is more gruesome and An American Werewolf in London is more comedic but Wolfen is more thoughtful. To go along with my initial remarks upon the subgenre, the film doesn’t waver in this regard, holds its weight, and further substantiates the werewolf as a potent antagonist in which a filmmaker has wisely utilized to his effective ends.
Obviously, I have yet to address the plot and there’s a reason for this: Its only typicality is that it opens with three murders. A police investigator named Dewey Wilson (Finney) is put on the case and spends the remainder of the movie battling his better judgment in assessing who he believes to be the culprit. However, what he has to contend with in what he discovers verses what he has been taught to ignore are the same dilemmas which the audience is forced to confront as well.
Now, all of this in tow, what did I think of the film? Like all of the other werewolf pictures mentioned, it took its own direction and I would suffer from a guilty conscious if I tried to convince someone of the similarity between apples and oranges aside from their umbrella label as fruit. Wolfen stands on its own two (four?) feet without any difficulties. I didn’t find the work necessarily exciting. The topics it addresses have been more readily and artistically presented in other films before and after it but I did find the combination of themes, as well as the manner in which they were depicted, interesting. Considering the full-load which Wadleigh has taken upon himself, he did quite well considering many others have botched potentially well-made works dealing with only a couple of his chosen theses.
With this, hopefully you’ll know if the film is up your alley or not.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
