*Insert unfunny joke that is a Hungry Like The Wolf reference here*
Wolfen (1981)
Directed By: Michael Wadleigh
The Prologue
So we take a trip back in the day to 1981 for a film about wolves called, well, it’s called Wolfen. Sadly it has nothing to do with the old school game Wolfenstein, but a man could hope going into watching it right? It is based off a novel of the same name however, so see there? I’m on my game today and know what I am talking about! You should rest easy when the man you are about to read a review from can bust out facts like that, it means he’s not half assing it, even when he rambles at the start to make sure the box art of the movie fits in well at the top of the review.
The Movie
So when important people start getting found torn apart in the big city, the police do the only logical thing they can do, that would be find the weirdest detective on the force and have him handle it. Of course to spite not being a very attractive man he also find a cute reporter to romance along the way as well, it’s only right after all, it was the 80′s. So add that up with some crazy Indian folks and you have a slower paced film, but it’s not a total waste. I did enjoy it, just not as much as most people I have talked to see to enjoy it. But, I’m also picky right?
I guess the best way I could put into words what I think about Wolfen, is to say it’s a lot like a giallo with the gore (when we get gore) and the pace (it takes it’s time). Also it resembles that in the mystery angle the film takes with them trying to link everything together and make sense out of it. Where it fails however is there isn’t any real nudity of note and also there’s no little twist at the end so it’s like an American-ized half giallo. And I will confess it was a bit slow for my taste, and it may be a bit slow and long in the tooth for a lot of you. See what I did there? I used the word “tooth”, and this movie is about Wolves..get it? Get it??..OK, moving along..
So as the movie rolls along, we see Indians who get naked and howl at the moon. We get the comedic ways of Gregory Hines, who has a roll in this. I think at one point I see the dude who played Carl from Family Matters dropping the f-word. And it gets all wrapped in a nice warm hug by the performance of Albert Finney who plays our main man, Dewey Wilson. And while I can’t prove it, I think the dude may be drunk throughout the whole film. He at least to me came across at times as a man who may have been on something or another during the film.
Like I said before, the gore here is good but far in between. They do a cool thing when we are looking through the eyes of the wolves that was much more cooler in 1981 than it is now in 2011, and I do wish we had speedup things and cut about 30 minutes off the run-time of the film. It at least gets points for making sense at the end of the day, something a lot of films now a days don’t even bother to do anyway. So if you have more of an attention span than I, you’ll probably like it more than me. I didn’t hate it, but I’d like a faster pace and more gore. Still worth a rent however.
The Conclusion
Some times these older films work really well and some times they don’t. This one was a little middle of the road for me, but still had more positives than negatives. It was the 80′s, so weird hair and headbands ruled the day, that can be a kick to see at times. Also it had pretty good blood for it’s time, but still needed just a bit more. Either way, you’ll see heads and hands fly off so you may get a few thrills from this one.
The Rating (6.5/10)
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