Fans are Calling This Forgotten Monster Movie on HBO Max “A Gothic powder keg”
The Universal Monsters have been around for a century now, and they’ve given us lots of horror highs and lows along the way. There are many recognized classics in the franchise, and we all know them, which means it’s often more fun to scour the archives for hidden gems. And Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman is one of those gems.
Released in 2010, almost 70 years after the original film that inspired it, Johnston’s film was plagued by production issues and was met with mixed reviews and lackluster box office returns. Over the last 15 years, though, The Wolfman has continued to gain defenders because of its focus on horror spectacle, complete with Oscar-winning makeup effects by the legendary Rick Baker.
Like the original, The Wolfman follows Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro), who has to return to his ancestral home in England after his brother is killed in what looks like a wild animal attack. Back home, he finds locals whispering about a shapeshifting beast, and his father, Sir John (Anthony Hopkins), seems more unstable than ever. Old wounds are opened, past resentments come back, and soon Lawrence is faced with the possibility that he, too, could fall victim to the beast in more ways than one.
If you’ve seen The Wolf Man from 1941, you know the basic beats of this story, including the addition of a love interest for Lawrence in the form of Gwen (Emily Blunt). What sets the remake apart from its predecessor is not just a new time period (the late 19th century), but an overall sense of grandeur and melodrama that does much of the heavy lifting. The film’s story might be a little rough around the edges (something somewhat remedied by an extended cut on home media releases), but Johnston has a knack for period-drama spectacle, and he nails that aspect of The Wolfman. For all its faults, it’s a grand movie, and it’s made grander by the work of the great Rick Baker, who won an Oscar for his creature effects.
Back in 2010, Dread Central’s review called the film a “Gothic powder keg” and praised del Toro’s performance in the lead role, and it has been winning over new fans ever since.
For me, The Wolfman also stands out as a great example of what the Universal Monsters films can still be in the right hands. It was not an entirely successful reboot, but neither was the more recent Wolf Man, which leaned away from the grand and into a much more intimate, contemporary approach. If the right filmmaker is given the space to play in a bigger, more Gothic sandbox, you can get something really cool that will only gain more depth with time.
The Wolfman is now streaming on HBO Max, where it crept into the service’s Top 10 movie offerings earlier this month.
Categorized: Streaming News
