The Wolfman: There’s a lot to like about director Joe Johnston’s faithful remake of the 1941 horror classic. Like the original, the new version takes place in England in the late 1800s. The forests still look ominous at night and in daylight, you never see the sun. The casting is perfect with Anthony Hopkins as the eccentric millionaire father, residing in a candle-lit, multiple-roomed estate, who may be hiding a dark secret about some monster slaughtering people in the dead of night throughout the countryside.
Benicio Del Toro, with his tall menacing frame and wooden cane, looks every bit out of place as Hopkins’ son and a Shakespearean actor who returns to his native homeland to help bury and investigate the grisly death of his brother. Emily Blunt is the mourning damsel in distress who thinks she can tame whatever is out there in a tragic story that bears similarities to Beauty and the Beast. Lastly, there is Hugo Weaving’s Inspector Aberline on the hunt with silver bullets in hand.
There is no doubt the one reason The Wolfman was remade was to improve upon the visual effects from over sixty years ago. Thankfully, in a time where filmmakers put a major emphasis on the million dollar computer-generated effects, The Wolfman’s CGI images don’t steal the show. Bottom line: the actors and the story are what matter more. If there’s one flaw, it’s that the scares and suspense are not nearly as good as the setting and casting—for which I am recommending the film.
