The Wolfman

“Even a man who is pure of heartand says his prayers by nightmay become a wolf when the wolfbane bloomsand the autumn moon is bright.”

I’m sorry about that but I’m pretty sure that any review of the new remake of The Wolfman is required by law to start off with that famous quote. Thankfully, this version of the story only speaks it in the opening, as opposed to the almost mantra status it achieves in the original. And yet, there’s no question that director Joe Johnston’s interpretation is more heavy handed. Or heavy pawed, as the case may be.

Benicio del Toro was cast in the role that Lon Chaney Jr became famous for in the original 1941 Universal classic, presumably because there’s a definite facial resemblance between the two. He plays Lawrence Talbot, a famed actor who is forced to abandon his theatrical tour in London when he hears of his brother’s disappearance. He returns home to his family estate as the prodigal son, and meets with his father, Sir John (a scenery chewing Anthony Hopkins). It is established to Lawrence that when he was a child, he was put in a mental institution after his mother committed suicide. Pay attention, this MacGuffin might come up again later.

Lawrence’s brother’s body turns up horribly mauled and when he goes to claim it, he overhears accusations against a local group of gypsies along with whispers of werewolves. He visits the local gypsy camp on a full moon looking for answers along with a group of disgruntled locals. While he is there, something attacks, killing indiscriminately left and right, both gypsies and angry townspeople disappearing into the woods with bloodcurdling screams. Lawrence sees a young boy run off into the woods and chases him down, but is himself attacked by the creature and bitten before it’s run off by the townsfolk. What could possibly go wrong from here?
At the very least, Blu-Ray owners will be pleased by some of the bonus features. Those with their player online can watch the original Wolfman film streamed through the BD-Live function. In addition to that there are: five deleted scenes that are actually pretty good; the  ‘U-Control’ function which lets you add a pop-up trivia track during the movie and PiP comparisons to the original film as well as video commentary by the production crew; Two alternate endings which aren’t really all that alternate; “The Beast Maker” – an interview with Rick Baker about his werewolf fixation; “Transformation Secrets” – examining the soulless CG effects during the man-to-wolf scenes; “The Wolfman Unleashed” – a look at the stunt work; D-box motion enabling for those who have a few thousand bucks lying around to buy their own home motion chair; and a digital copy of the movie.