My Overlong, In-Depth Review of The Wolf Man 2010 Remake
February 28, 2010
Okay, so I saw the new remake of The Wolf Man. I actually saw it about 2 weeks ago, the Saturday night after it came out. It has taken me this long to write down what I thought of it, partly because of a new job that has been gobbling up all my time, but also because I felt really conflicted about this movie and it took me a long time to gather my thoughts on it.
You see, I am a HUGE fan of the original Wolf Man. I grew up watching it, and all its sequels, on TV a million times as a kid. The original film has always been one of my favorite monster movies, and the Wolf Man himself has always been my favorite monster. There are five films in the original Wolf Man series produced by Universal Studios, and which starred Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot/ The Wolf Man. Some of them crossover with other monster series. They are:
The Wolf Man
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
House of Frankenstein
House of Dracula
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Not all of the films listed above are great classics, but I have such a lifelong fascination with Larry Talbot/ The Wolf Man, that I am just happy to watch him – even when he appears in an unworthy klunker like House of Dracula, or when treated as a humorous boogeyman in A&C Meet Frankenstein (which actually IS a great movie). Yes love is blind and for this exact reason, I think I am too close to the original Wolf Man film and character, to even judge this 2010 remake. I probably need to see it again to make a more clear-minded, fair judgment.
I explain all this so you’ll understand the perspective this review comes from. That said, here are my thoughts on the 2010 Wolf Man remake.
THE GOOD:
1. It was a very, very entertaining movie, but I don't think I can call it a classic. But it was really fun.
2. I have heard some people complain that the characters were poorly written/ introduced. I did not have this problem. Being as familiar as I am with the original film, I went into the remake feeling like I was simply revisiting old friends. I know these characters very well. Yes they were being played by different actors but I went into it already connected, and caring about them. No problem there.
3. The depiction of the Wolf Man himself, as a character, was spectacular. This was the most important thing in the world, as far as I was concerned. And the fact that they kept this character true to the spirit of the original is what will keep me loving this remake despite its flaws. The filmmakers never made a joke out of Larry or The Wolf Man. They depicted him as a true monster. They let things get violent, and they unflinchingly showed the blood and gore. They reminded the world what werewolves are capable of. Bless them for that!
4. This movie is Rick Baker’s most innovative work since An American Werewolf in London. If you are a fan of werewolf movies, if you know the lineage and evolution of werewolf transformation sequences, then you can see that Rick Baker was really thinking about “what have we not seen before?” And through this process he indeed shows us some amazing new details of the man into wolf metamorphosis. In this movie you see the pigmentation of skin change, from Caucasian flesh to iron-gray wolf flesh, before the pelt of dark fur grows over it. You see small, squarish human teeth rearrange or fall out to make room for big, animal fangs growing in. You see claws too big to grow from human cuticles simply tear through flesh and blossom from the entire fingertip. You see how the human big toe must withdraw back to the heel and become a canine dew claw as his feet bend into haunches.
5. I liked Benicio Del Toro’s performance as Larry Talbot. Although, he was clearly not playing Lon Chaney Jr. Rather, Del Toro’s appearance and performance was pattered directly after Oliver Reed in the 1960’s film “Curse of the Werewolf”. This was not a bad choice at all in my mind. I liked the fact that he was haunted by inner demons even before he became a genuine monster.
6. The environments were incredible. The filmmakers did an extraordinary job of creating a visually authentic, and wonderfully, broodingly, atmospheric world in which to set the story.
7. The score by Danny Elfman was great. This is significant to me, because Elfman is not one of my favorite movie composers. I prefer film composers whose scores are full of variety and changing directions, and the bulk of Elfman’s work mostly sounds repetitive to me. This score was so unique I didn’t recognize his style for once, until I saw his name at the end credits.
8. Another interesting thing I noticed in the end credits – the story was co-written by Andrew Kevin Walker, who wrote Seven for David Fincher, and Sleepy Hollow for Tim Burton.
9. The action scenes were great. Dynamic, well-filmed and clearly presented, without the irritating shaky-cam that is so popular these days.
10. If there was ONE single thing in this remake that was actually BETTER than the original, then it was the most superficial thing in the world – when it came to the actress playing Gwen Conliffe… Emily Blunt was way cuter than Evelyn Ankers. Nuff said!
HOMAGES:
This remake contained several little homages to the original Wolf Man and other classic werewolf films sprinkled throughout. Those little touches were sweet to a fan of old werewolf movies like me. Here are the ones I caught:
1. The movie opened with the famous poem, “Even a man who is pure in heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright.” which was the “May the Force Be With You” of the original Wolf Man film series. No movie about the Wolf Man is quite complete without this iconic verse.
2. Larry had the cane with the silver handle sculpted as a wolf-head, a trademark prop from the original film. I know the actual cane used in the original film still survives and is in the collection of Bob Burns. I have to wonder if it was the exact same prop.
3. When Larry is on the lam, traveling on foot from London to Blackmoor, he is dressed in an outfit almost identical to the outfit worn by Henry Hull in Werewolf of London. Long coat, scarf, deerstalker cap. Werewolf of London was a prototype Universal werewolf movie, made before, and very influential upon, the original Wolf Man, so I am tempted to believe this costume design was an intentional reference, not a coincidence.
4. The brief scene in the antique shop that Gwen owned was one of the more subtle nods to the original film. In the original film, Gwen’s father owned an antique shop, which became a major setting, as Larry returned there to meet Gwen, pick her up for a date, and then to ask her for help.
5. In-joke: the guy blowing the whistle who gets killed at the beginning was Rick Baker.
6. When everybody starts freaking out at the gypsy camp, some of the shots were composed exactly like shots from the original film. The moment where Larry grabs a fleeing gypsy man to ask him what is wrong and the man exclaims that there is a monster in the camp, was an almost exact recreation.
7. The black horse in the gypsy camp getting spooked when it sees Larry was lifted directly from the original film.
8. The sequence in which the Wolf Man escapes by bounding across rooftops was obviously inspired by the climax of Curse of the Werewolf.
9. Benicio Del Toro may have been playing Lawrence Talbot, but he was dressed and made up to look just like Oliver Reed in Curse of the Werewolf.
10. The scene where the Wolf Man rampages through London and causes panic and vehicle crashes was an obvious nod to An American Werewolf in London.
11. The ending, where Gwen confronts the Wolf Man and tells her she loves him and asks him to let her help him… and the monster pauses as if recognizing her, is also a pretty obvious nod to the ending of An American Werewolf in London.
12. The bear in the gypsy camp is a reference to a famous deleted scene from the original Wolf Man film, in which a caged bear breaks loose and causes a panic at a festival. Larry Talbot confronts it and, thanks to his werewolf persona, causes it to cower and be tamed again. This scene was in the script for the original Wolf Man but was deleted because on the day of filming they couldn’t control the bear.
13. The Wolf Man having a monster battle with the older werewolf who caused him to become cursed may have been a nod to the Spanish series of werewolf films called “El Hombre Lobo” by Paul Naschy. There was a similar situation and battle in the first film of that series.
THE BAD:
Here are my complaints and gripes about the movie. Again, I admit my opinions are deeply skewed by my love of the original.
1. The number one thing I didn’t like, was the concept of Larry's father, Sir John, turning out to be the bad werewolf who bit Larry and turned him into the Wolf Man. Yes, this plot point led to a scene with two werewolves fighting each other, which, I admit, was a lot of fun, and looked really cool. But as a fan of the original movie… this just felt all wrong to me. In the original film, Larry’s father, Sir John, as played by Claude Rains, was the calm voice of reason. He was the moral and intellectual center of the whole movie, the guy that was constantly doing everything he could to try and bring poor Larry back around to good mental and emotional health. So seeing that character become a werewolf was... I dunno... just not the character! This complaint spawns two of my other gripes:
2. A basic pet peeve I have with a lot of modern movies is this need to make everything in the story connect with everything else. Why does the bad werewolf have to be the hero's father? Why can't it just be a random tragedy? In the original, the werewolf attack was much more random. The werewolf who bit Larry was Bela (played by Bela Lugosi), who was the son of Maleva the Gypsy woman. Larry managed to kill the wolf who bit him. But when the police hear the reports of this attack, and then find the corpse of Bela the gypsy at the scene, THAT'S why the police suddenly start following and pestering Larry. They think he's committed a murder – and that he's so crazy he thinks he killed a wolf when he actually killed a man.
3. Not enough with the gypsies. You can’t be a fan of the original Wolf Man without having some love for Maria Ouspenskya in your heart. Her character, Maleva the gypsy woman, is the Yoda of the original Wolf Man series. She becomes not only a loving mother-figure for Larry but also the all-knowing expert and advisor on werewolf mythology. So I was very anxious to see how she – and her son Bela – would be portrayed in this remake. But strangely, what we got was a wonderfully appropriate – but criminally underused – actress playing Maleva, and… no Bela. This made me feel like the remake was really missing something important. This is another problem that results directly from the shifting of the werewolf curse away from the Gypsies and onto Sir John.
4. I am not a fan of the... "quiet scene, quiet scene, quiet scene... BIG LOUD NOISY THING THAT MAKES YOU JUMP" type of scare, and this movie had one of those about every ten minutes. A few moments like that are fine if something horrifying actually happens, But here, too many moments like that turned out to be false scares - like a friendly dog jumping out of a shadow, or a weird image from a dream sequence.
5. There was some CGI in this movie and most of it looked fine… but there was one scene with a CGI deer tied up as bait for a werewolf trap, which looked very much like a CGI deer. Yikes. In my humble opinion, that particular bit of texture rendering and animation needed another pass of revisions before calling it good.
Bottom line – the 2010 Wolf Man was an enjoyable, entertaining movie. I sincerely believe the filmmakers’ hearts were in the right place. I DO think they successfully re-captured the spirit of the original film, and paid it a wonderful tribute. I don’t think it came out perfect, but it was a lot of fun. My appreciation for its strengths greatly outweigh my mild disappointment at its weaknesses. As soon as I’ve got my hands on the DVD, I have no doubt it’ll become one of those movies I go back and constantly re-watch, for years to come.
February 4, 2010
January 24, 2010
The second Wulf and Batsy trade paperback features a brand new, never before-published, epic-length story called Lustmord Nightmares, plus extras including: full-page character illustrations, Captain Bloodclot Ads, and a Supplemental section of notes, sketches, layouts, and text showing how this new story was conceived and developed. The whole book totals 268 pages, with a cover price of $25.00. Available for order March 1st, 2010. Recommended for mature readers 18 and up.
Skinny Puppy Concert: "In Solvent See"
December 12, 2009
Last Thursday night I attended the Skinny Puppy concert, “In Solvent See”. Also in attendance were my wife Monica, my friend and awesome web designer, John, and his girlfriend Kat.
This was an amazing show. Ogre had an awesome new costume that looked like some kinda crazy ghost monster, with a white jack-o-lantern face, and a three-foot tall, pointed head with smoke spurting out of the top. He wore an outfit that looked like a combination straightjacket and belted medical brace. He had black hair and bloody bandages dangling off his arms. There were the usual flashing lights and at times Ogre trapped himself inside a blood-splattered glass box and pawed crazily at the window like a dog begging to be let out of a cage. At the end of the show he shattered the glass window. And, as with all their live performances, they had giant screens in the background playing crazy images to enhance the mood. That’s what I love about Skinny Puppy concerts – they always put on an elaborate horror show. I was happy to be positioned pretty close to the front, and at an angle where I was able to see Cevin Key performing on keyboards.
As for the music – the sound quality in this club – (The Club Nokia in L.A.) was really great. The bass was deep and vibrating, and the sound system was balanced so that the drums and the synthesizer stuff could be heard equally well. It blows my mind to watch Cevin Key orchestrate his music during a live show. He will play versions of the songs that sound faithful to the studio versions you've heard on the albums, but along the way he will throw in all sorts of spontaneous extra sound effects, from recorded movie samples to an occasional, unexpected, electronic SPROING from a synthesizer. This is partly why I wanted to get close up for this show. As impressed as I am to see Ogre doing his thing, I am equally fascinated to watch Cevin Key, surrounded by all this electronic equipment, with crazy controls everywhere, and his hands moving deftly all over the place, making these sounds happen. The guy is a mad scientist of sound and his art is beyond human comprehension.
They played a fine selection of songs from throughout their career. My favorite SP song of all time is “Assimilate”, but I have never heard them perform it at any live show that I have attended. Basically, every time I go to a Skinny Puppy concert, that’s the song I’m secretly hoping they’ll play, but they never do. So I did not expect to hear it this time either. But - they made my night, when they broke out "Assimilate" as their big ending song, and it sounded IN-CRED-IBLE!!! During the encore they played “Worlock”, which is another longtime favorite of mine. And I was super-happy to hear how many of their really old songs they threw into the mix. I’ve heard them play “Addiction” live before, but at this show, they also played “Far Too Frail” and “Deadlines” – tracks from their first and second albums.
That said, now I must be totally honest and a little critical. Although I have been a dedicated fan of this group since 1987, the only stuff they’ve done that I have NOT been a fan of, are the handful of heavily-political songs from their two most recent albums. They performed a couple of those songs and that was the only low point of the concert for me. I can get behind their environmentalist and anti-vivisection crusades... even see their point when it comes to their anti-war messages (some wars are worth fighting, some certainly are not) - but I can really do without their criticisms of organized religion and certain post-9/11 views. Thankfully, they kept the preachy stuff to a minimum as I prefer to see them just having fun, creating experimental electronic sounds, and putting on an insane, scary horror-show. For the most part this is what they did.
Here is the set list, based on memory:
“In Solvent See”
1. Love In Vein
2. HateKill
3. Addiction
4. Dogshit
5. Deadlines
6. Rodent
7. Politi-Kill
8. Tormentor
9. Morpheus Laughing
10. Pro-Test
11. Pedafly
12. Ugli
13. Assimilate
ENCORE
1. Worlock
2. Live Brap Improvisation
3. Far Too Frail
Another great concert for Skinny Puppy as a band, and for me, as a huge fan.
Thanks, "Tina"! Now... LET ME EAT YOUR BRAINS!
October 18, 2009
Wow, this is cool: Today I got a sweet email about my artwork from Beverly Randolph Hartley, the actress who played Tina—the girl who gets chased by the Tar Man in "Return of the Living Dead".
She saw my Tar Man drawing, and wanted to let me know how much she liked it. What a nice lady! And how flattering, because ROTLD is one of my all-time favorite horror movies! Thanks, Beverly!
Meeting Mr. Skal and Mr. Mallory
October 16, 2009
Today I attended a book signing for (and had the pleasure to meet) David J. Skal, one of my favorite authors on the topic of the history of horror entertainment.
I first learned of Mr. Skal in the late 1990s, as the mastermind behind most of the "Special Features" and documentaries to be found on the DVD releases of the classic Universal Horror Films. Nobody was happier than me with the lavish treatment those wonderful films received on DVD. Then, around 2003, just before a Christmas vacation to Maine, my wife bought me a book called "The Monster Show" to read on the plane. I ended up getting totally absorbed in that book, and read the whole thing over the entire vacation. Only about halfway through it did I realize, "Hey, wait a minute... This was written by the same guy who does those documentaries on the Universal Monsters DVDs". Shortly thereafter I bought Mr. Skal's other major book "Hollywood Gothic - the Story of Dracula, From Novel To Screen", and was blown away again.
You gotta understand I have been reading "behind the scenes" books about horror movies since I was six years old. By the age of thirty, I thought I had read all the worthwhile horror movie books, and knew everything there was to know about the subject. But this guy David Skal's books were filled with all kinds of new information I'd never run across before. They opened up a whole new world of discovery for me, about the "true stories" behind my favorite films.
So it was a lot of fun to finally meet him, and have the chance to tell him personally how much I appreciate his work. He seemed like a really nice, friendly dude. It is always so fun to meet another creative person whose work you admire and they turn out to be cool.
But here's the heartbreaker - when Monica mentioned how much she particularly enjoyed his commentary on the Dracula DVD... he told us about all the OTHER documentaries, interviews, commentary tracks, and special features that he worked on for several OTHER Universal horror film DVDs... that the studio ultimately decided to release WITHOUT any special features because they (the studio) felt there was not enough fan interest in such product!
How sad! The fact that Skal-produced docs and commentary tracks WERE MADE and apparently DO EXIST for such films as: "Son of Frankenstein", "Dracula's Daughter"; and "The Incredible Shrinking Man";... and that other such materials WERE BEING WORKED ON for "Murders in the Rue Morue"; "The Black Cat", and "The Raven", ... but WERE NOT and NEVER WILL BE INCLUDED on their DVD releases... is a stab in the heart to a horror fan like me. I've got all those movies in my DVD library and now I feel like they are all missing something!
Oh well, the important thing is it was a fun day and it was great to meet and converse with one of my favorite authors. He signed my copy of "The Monster Show", and I also bought his new book, "Romancing The Vampire", which is more of an art book with fascinating historical text, than a history book like "The Monster Show" or "Hollywood Gothic". But the new book is really cool. It is full of crazy little surprises, including everything from pull-out posters for old stage and film productions of Dracula, to maps of Transylvannia... and my favorite item - an exact reproduction of Bram Stoker's pages of working notes for Dracula - before he wrote the novel. So it's a really fun book all around.
Also appearing at the signing, was Michael Mallory, who also turned out to be another cool guy. His new book, "Universal Studios Monsters" was the unexpected surprise of the day. I took one quick flip through it and bought it on-sight.
I LOVE books like these - large, hardcover, with big, beautiful reproductions of classic images from old black-and-white monster movies. There have been a lot of good new books like these that have come out over the past few years - ("Hollywood Horror" by Mark A. Vieira and "The Hammer Story" by Hearn & Barnes are two others that spring instantly to mind) - and I love them. They remind me of the kind of big hardcover horror movie books they used to publish in the late 70s and which I used to check out over and over again from my school library.
This new book, Mallory's "Universal Studios Monsters" is another book like that, and it stands out not only because it nicely presents several old favorite images, but also because it includes some brand new photos that I've never seen before. I asked him about this and he said he worked hard with Universal to come up with some "never- before- published" images. The book also spotlights several of the supporting actors and crew people that never get paid enough respect in these books.
I spent a long afternoon when I got home going through these new books page by page. By the time I was done looking, it was dark outside. Man, what a fun day and what a couple of new treasures to add to the bookshelf!
Wulf and Batsy Trade Paperback Volume 2 in Progress
September 13, 2009
I am currently entering the "final stages" of completion on the Wulf and Batsy Volume 2 Trade Paperback. The actual story material was finished months ago, but afterwards, I needed to take some time away from it. It's a whopper, 200 pages of scary, sexy, silly monster fun. I spent so long working on it that by the end I needed a break from my own characters. Now I am back on it, assembling all the sketches and materials that went into the development of this storyline, and putting them together for a Supplemental feature at the end of the book.
That effort is going pretty well, but the front cover artwork is in dispute. I did a cover I am basically happy with. My wife had some criticisms of it. Then another of my artist buddies had a criticism, but his gripe was exactly the opposite of my wife's. Then another of my friends said he thought it was perfect. This jumble of mixed reactions has me wondering if I should scrap the current version and redo it from scratch... or just stick with it. Hmmm...
That's where we stand as of this date. I hope to have the book ready to go to print by November.
2009 Skinny Puppy Concert
August 12, 2009
My wife Monica RUUUUULES!!! She works for Anheuser Busch, which sponsors several venues around L.A. So she just got me FREE TICKETS to the upcoming 2009 SKINNY PUPPY concert!!! This news made my whole week!!! That said, I am extremely curious about the title of this tour: "Solvent See". I have read more than one report that the new album that they are currently working on is intended to go back to the sound of their first album, Remission, from 1986. One of the best songs on that album was called "Solvent". So this could be further evidence that the new album will resemble the style and sound of their original works, and/or that this tour will include more of their really early songs, which I would love. Aww man, I can't wait. I can't wait for the concert, and I can't wait to kiss my wife when she gets home.
My Hack/Slash Issues in Stores Now.
August 10, 2009
I don't know how I forgot to mention this, but the first issue of Hack/Slash that I illustrated (issue #24) recently hit stores and is now available for sale at your local comics shop. (And if it isn't, tell 'em to order it!)
Also - the second issue I illustrated, the double-sized issue #25 is supposed to come out this week!
San Diego Comic Con 2009 Report
July 27, 2009
I’m home from San Diego Comic Con and I have to say this was one of the best years I’ve had there. Sharing the table with Josh Howard, Scott Zirkel, and Pat Bussey was an awesome time. Those guys are just great people, pure and simple.
I sold many copies of the Wulf and Batsy Volume 1 Trade Paperback, met several people who enjoy my work, signed stuff, and drew some sketches, too. It was really fun. Thanks so much to those of you on deviantART who stopped by. I enjoyed meeting all of you and feel most grateful to have such good people following my artwork.
I feel like I learned a lot, too. I treated this year mostly as an experiment to see how I would do selling my own self-published book at a big convention. I must say it was a successful experiment. I already have a dozen ideas about how to make it go even better next time!
On Saturday I spent an hour signing copies of Hack/Slash Issues #24 and #25, along with Tim Seeley at the Devil’s Due Publishing booth. The Devil’s Due people were really nice and gave me a warm welcome. After months of talking to these folks only through email it felt good to finally meet them face to face. They are all such nice people.
And the Hack/Slash fan response was pretty amazing. You must understand I am still very new to this whole comics thing. I have never experienced anything like that with any comic project I’ve been involved with. It was a whirlwind! I mean, trust me, I know the crowd was there for Mr. Seeley, and Hack/Slash (not me), but the line stretched all down the side of the booth, and around the corner from what I could tell. Never in my life have I signed so many comic books or whipped out so many character-head-sketches at such a crazy rate of speed. It was overwhelming but really exciting at the same time!
Of course the other fun part of any trip to San Diego is the socializing and the food. Thursday night the ever-generous Tim Morrell and John Walsh took me and my wife Monica, plus Josh, Pat, and Scott out to dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. That crowd was absolutely hilarious. By the time we got back to our hotel, I couldn’t even talk anymore, my voice was so hoarse from laughing so much with those guys. Friday night me and Monica went to dinner by ourselves for a nice date at The Fish Market, which has gotta be one of my top 3 favorite restaurants in the whole world. Eating there is something we look forward to every year. One of my favorite foods is swordfish, and that place makes it better than anybody. Plus their oyster platter is awesome. But everything is good there. Saturday I hooked up with a bunch of old friends from animation and we went (again) to the Fish Market as a large group. That night I had another oyster platter and the thresher shark, which is my second favorite fish. Sorry, I should be talking about art and comics here. But I just have a hard time mentioning San Diego without bringing up The Fish Market. Haha.
And last but not least, I went to San Diego Con with a long shopping list—my top items being old, antique horror comics from the 1940s and 50s—and I was amazed at how many of them I found! Probably spent too much money, but San Diego Con is only once a year, so who cares. All around a great time.
Crypt Logic Returns
July 21, 2009
After four (or is it five?) years of decomposing on the internet, CryptLogic.net finally gets the major overhaul it has been dying for, for so long! Thanks to the work of brilliant designer and friend John Walsh, my art website now looks and functions better than ever before... and features a lot more content! Have fun looking around, kiddies!