Wolfen (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Wolfen |
| Original title | Wolfen |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1981 |
| length | 115 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Michael Wadleigh |
| script |
David Eyre , Michael Wadleigh |
| production | Rupert Hitzig |
| music | James Horner |
| camera | Gerry Fisher |
| cut |
Marshall M. Borden , Martin J. Bram , Dennis Dolan , Chris Lebenzon |
| occupation | |
| |
Wolfen is an American horror film of director Michael Wadleigh from 1981, which in the Roman wolf breeding : (AKA The Wolfen by) Whitley Strieber is based.
action
The cruelly battered bodies of real estate agent Christopher van der Veer, his wife and a bodyguard are found in New York's Battery Park . The type of mutilation is a mystery to the police, the motive and the perpetrator remain completely in the dark at first.
Wolf hair is found at the crime scene, but it cannot be assigned to any of the known species. The investigation leads Detective Wilson and psychologist Rebecca Neff to a group of Indians who are said to have the ability to transform themselves into animal form through spiritual rites . They tell of the wolf cult, the incarnation of Indian spirits who try to defend the land of the ancestors against its destruction following the example of animals.
After more mysterious deaths, the search focuses on the ruins and rubble of the South Bronx . Finally, in the penthouse of van der Veer, who had planned large-scale new building measures in the slum areas, there is a showdown with a wolf pack living there, which defends itself against the demolition of their last habitats and hunting grounds. Wilson demonstratively destroys the miniature models of the planned building complexes, whereupon the pacified predators finally withdraw.
background
The horror film flopped at the box office, but later developed into a successful insider tip on TV and video. The tracking shots from the wolves' point of view were filmed with steadicam or thermal imaging cameras (called "Alien Vision" here). Film critic Kieren Hughes thinks it is obvious that the 1988 action film Predator was influenced by this film.
Tom Waits made a cameo as a drunken bar owner in this film .
The inclusion of rubble and ruined buildings in the South Bronx wasn't special effects but was the normal look of parts of the Bronx in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Only the church was built especially for the film and destroyed again after the shooting. This scene was filmed on the corner of E 172nd Street and Seabury Place, near the famous Charlotte Street. Today these streets, like the surrounding area, have been rebuilt and consist mainly of single-family houses.
Reviews
"[...] one of the most intelligent and sophisticated horror films of the early 80s, but turned out to be a financial disaster at the box office [...] a pessimistic vision of horror"
“'Ecological' horror film that largely dispenses with superficial effects. Exquisitely photographed and fascinating in the optically alienated sequences, the well-acted directorial debut of a previous editor has some dramaturgical weaknesses and is not always consistent enough in its story. "
Awards
- 1982: Nominated for the Saturn Award in the categories of Best Horror Film , Best Actor (Finney), Best Director and Best Screenplay
- Special Jury Award of the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival
literature
- Whitley Strieber: Wolf brood. Novel. (Original title: Wolfen ). German by Joachim Körber . 3rd edition, 315 S. Heyne, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-453-04197-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ criticism from Kieren Hughes (engl.) ( Page no longer available , searching web archives ) Info: The link is automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Full cast and crew for Wolfen. Internet Movie Database , accessed November 16, 2008 .
- ↑ Jonathan Soffer: Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City preview at GoogleBooksearch , p. 177ff.
- ↑ Faces in the Rubble , accessed on May 14, 2016.
- ^ “Wolfen” (1981): A Cool Look Back at NYC Transportation Infrastructure , accessed on May 14, 2016 (English).
- ↑ Dirk Manthey, Jörg Altendorf, Willy Loderhose (eds.): The large film lexicon. All top films from A-Z . Second edition, revised and expanded new edition. tape VI . Verlagsgruppe Milchstraße, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-89324-126-4 , p. 3190 f .
- ↑ Wolfen. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 12, 2016 .
Web links
- Wolfen in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Wolfen at rotten tomatoes (English)