Wolf Man
[4K/Blu-ray]
It’s kind of nice watching a movie and not knowing who any of the stars are. Jodorowsky once said that movie stars are the death of cinema, or something like that. He’s not wrong. Then again, he also wanted to make a movie with Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, and Orson Welles. So, maybe he IS wrong. But in a time when almost every mainstream movie is overcast (NO role is too small!), I enjoyed watching Wolf Man and watching the actors submerge themselves in their roles. I wasn’t watching Johnny Depp or Julia Rogers, I was watching a guy who’s becoming a wolf man and his terrified wife. Maybe these actors ARE well known. In which case…oops.
Am I supposed to know what Blumhouse is? They’re a horror movie studio, or something like that, right? Is there any more to them? Are they well known for a certain kind of movie style? Not sure. So, I’m watching this movie kind of blind. Aren’t I the unbiased reviewer?
Wolf Man is a fine watch. Just fine. And for all its shortcomings it does some cool things. I haven’t seen the audio and visual aspect of creature morphing depicted in such an interesting manner. When Blake turns into the wolf, we get to experience the audio/visual circumstances of that through his eyes. This is interesting and compelling and not something I had seen before. Way to go.
However, Wolf Man wasn’t much more than that. There movie was playing too fast and loose with its script to really help me appreciate it. What are these Wolf People exactly? How do they propagate? With how easy Blake got turned into a Wolf Man, shouldn’t there be THOUSANDS of them in Oregon? And if so, why has no one ever seen one? Do you have to get scratched but not contaminate with blood to transmit the disease? Is it a highlander situation where there is always only one? Why are they attacking only humans which are their only threat? Why do they love killing simply for the sake of killing and not for sustenance? Are they both day and night-dwellers and we’re supposed to forget about the whole full moon thing? Why isn’t their daughter Ginger absolutely terrified of her dad morphing into a wolf man? Is Blake’s dad supposed to be in his 60s now? Why do we see Blake’s body go through weird morphological changes which seem to vanish in the next shot? Why is he losing hair if he’s becoming a wolf? What is Charlotte going to explain what happened in the end? Where are your writers?
Frustrating movie, isn’t it?
Also, why are the end credits so weird? Again, am I missing something? Am I missing all of it? Woof!
