Wolfman (film)

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Movie
German title Wolfman
Original title The Wolfman
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2010
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 14
Rod
Director Joe Johnston
script Andrew Kevin Walker
David Self
production Scott Stuber
Rick Yorn
Sean Daniel
Benicio del Toro
music Danny Elfman
camera Shelly Johnson
cut Dennis Virkler
Mark Goldblatt
Michael Tronick
Walter Murch
occupation

Wolfman is a 2010 American horror film released by Universal Studios . Directed by Joe Johnston and starring Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins . The budget for the film was $ 150 million. Wolfman was released in Germany on February 11, 2010, in the USA on February 12, 2010. The film is a remake of Der Wolfsmensch (Original: The Wolf Man ) from 1941.

action

England in 1891: To help find his missing brother, actor Lawrence Talbot returns to his home in Blackmoor, Hampshire , in Victorian England , where a mysterious series of bloody deaths has people in suspense.

Lawrence is received by his father, Sir John Talbot, and his old servant. After a cool greeting, his father explains to him that he will be late because his brother's body has already been found in a ditch. Miss Gwen Conliffe, his brother's fiancée, is also staying at the manor.

Lawrence goes to the inquest and is horrified to find a completely disfigured and mangled corpse. Lawrence gets the last of the belongings that were supposed to be buried with his brother. When his brother died, he was carrying a medallion belonging to a Gypsy clan who recently moved to Blackmoor. Disregarding his father's warning not to leave the house when the moon is full, Lawrence goes to the gypsies. When Lawrence is looking for information on his brother, the village policeman and local men arrive. They attribute the most recent deaths to the bear carried by the gypsies. Almost at the same time, the camp is attacked by a surprisingly barely recognizable animal, which causes panic and kills some people. While trying to protect a fleeing boy, Lawrence is attacked and bitten on the neck. The gypsies find him, treat his wound and take him to his family's country estate.

Lawrence's recovery takes a month, with Gwen in particular taking care of him. When the treating doctor examines the wound again, he notices that it is healing unusually quickly. Scotland Yard has meanwhile sent Inspector Francis Aberline to Blackmoor to investigate the matter. Alerted by Lawrence's doctor and influenced by old legends, the villagers want to use force to pick Lawrence up shortly before the full moon and put him under observation. Only through the intervention of his father, who refers to his land law and does not shy away from confrontation, does this not succeed.

Since his wound has now completely healed and Lawrence has noticed an increase in strength and sensory perception since he was wounded, he begins to believe even the rumors that tell of an ancient curse that turns people into bloodthirsty werewolves during a full moon . He therefore sends Gwen away, for whom he develops more and more affection for fear of being able to harm her unintentionally. The village is now arming itself with silver balls, since these alone are effective against werewolves. A troop of men set up a trap in front of the Talbot estate and positions themselves with animal bait.

That same night, Lawrence can watch his father visit the mausoleum of the dead mother who is said to have taken her own life many years ago. He follows him and discovers that a kind of shrine for the mother has been built in a basement room . His father surprises him and gives vague hints about the events. When the full moon falls shortly afterwards, Lawrence actually turns into a monster, gets outside and cruelly kills the ambushing troop. The next morning, Lawrence wakes up in blood-smeared clothes on his father's estate, who woke him up and had Inspector Aberline arrested him immediately.

Lawrence is taken to a closed psychiatric hospital in London where his alleged delusions are treated with ice water and medication. After a month his father visits him and tells him the truth about himself: Many years ago he was bitten by a werewolf during an expedition and then as a werewolf he was responsible for the death of his wife. For 25 years his faithful servant fulfilled his mission to lock him up in the basement of the mausoleum during the nights of the full moon. However, when Lawrence's brother met his fiancée and they were about to leave the house sooner or later, he could not bear the thought of her absence. On a full moon night, he struck down his servant, transformed himself and killed his son. He openly admits that he is fascinated by his animal quality and has decided to give himself up to it from now on. He himself bit Lawrence and put the curse on him. He is full of anger and thoughts of revenge against his father, but cannot do anything against him in his situation.

In a demonstration in front of scholars in a lecture hall on a night of a full moon, the alleged fairy tale of the wolf man is said to be unfounded, but Lawrence turns into a beast again, kills his doctor and his helper and flees. During the spectacular escape through London, Lawrence fell victim to more people. Inspector Aberline and the police manage to catch the monster, but due to the lack of silver cartridges, it escapes.

The next morning, the human Lawrence goes to Gwen's store and reveals himself. She promises him help, and since she returns his feelings, they kiss. The investigation quickly leads Aberline to Gwen. He searches the store, but Lawrence is no longer there. This makes his way to Blackmoor with the intention of first killing his father and then himself. In turn, Gwen travels to Blackmoor and asks the gypsies about a healing method. The inspector also travels with reinforcements to look for Lawrence, find him, and kill him with silver bullets.

Lawrence breaks into his father's house and armed himself with the rifle and silver cartridges of the servant, who has apparently been killed by Sir John in the meantime. When he meets his father, however, he does not manage to kill him because he has removed the gunpowder from the cartridges. At the full moon, both transform into werewolves and a fight ensues, in the course of which a fire breaks out. Lawrence eventually wins the duel and kills his father. The arriving Aberline tries to kill Lawrence, but Gwen, who also arrives, prevents him. He is bitten by Lawrence while Gwen flees into the woods. The werewolf follows her, confronts and overpowers her. Gwen manages to look into his eyes and appeal to the human core within him. Lawrence pauses as Aberline and the pursuers gradually approach. In the end, Gwen sees no other option than to shoot the monster with the inspector's pistol that she is carrying in order to redeem it. The then transformed back Lawrence dies in her arms before the inspector arrives. Finally, moonlight penetrates the gloomy forest, and a werewolf howl can be heard again, an indication that Inspector Aberline is now under the curse.

Trivia

  • The second trailer released features the song The Beast At Our Door by Groove Addicts .
  • In the scene in which Gwen is researching books about wolf people, you can see the woodcut Werewolf by Lucas Cranach the Elder from 1512.
  • Originally, the film was to be made by director Mark Romanek , who was then replaced by Joe Johnston in February 2008, three weeks before shooting began.
  • The werewolf makeup for Benicio del Toro was created by makeup FX designer Rick Baker .
  • The film was shot in 2008 at Pinewood Studios in London . In 2009, some additional sequences were shot, also at Pinewood Studios, directed by Vic Armstrong .
  • Danny Elfman , who was hired for the film music, was fired after disappointing test screenings of the film; Paul Haslinger was brought in as the new composer . When the Haslinger music also failed tests, the Elfman music was finally used.
  • In a scene at the beginning of the film, Max von Sydow has a cameo as an unknown travel companion from Lawrence, who is on his way to see his father. The stranger gives Lawrence the eye-catching stick that one sees again and again throughout the film. This scene is only included in the Director's Cut.

Reviews

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
Metacritic
critic
audience
IMDb

“Great pictures, morbid tension. Spectacular remake of an almost forgotten horror classic "

- Cinema

“Genre fans get their money's worth with silver balls, howling wolves, clouds passing by the full moon, a funeral procession through a poplar avenue as well as desaturated pictures and goose bumps score. Death, transformation, resurrection, redemption; everything is played through strictly according to the textbook, lustfully, bloody, straightforward and technically perfect. "

- Kino.de

“Wolfman is always fun when the actors tackle the woodcut style of their characters with skilful theatricality. [...] Anthony Hopkins once again lets the lurking predator flash through, as Hannibal Lecter once burned himself into film-cultural memory - even though the German dubbing robs him of charisma. Hugo Weaving only has to be dragged in front of the camera in order to unfold a tremendous spell with even the most trivial lines. Only Emily Blunt cannot distinguish herself in her role, which is limited to undignified delivery of keywords. Unfortunately, the humorous cast cannot hide the insubstantiality of the story. "

- movie starts

“In view of the great equipment and honorable cast, it's a real shame how half-baked and bad this film with its problem-plagued production history is. It starts out so hopefully and indeed brings back memories of classic horror, from a time before the hyperkinetic editing and the digital monster inferno. But the closer the film approaches the inevitable transformation, the more it slips into the ridiculous and boring. "

- Moviepilot .de

"One of the worst movies we ever made ... WOLFMAN and BABE 2 are two of the shittiest movies we put out. The script never got right ... The director was wrong. Benicio [del Toro] stunk. It all stunk.
(One of the worst movies we've ever made ... WOLFMAN and BABE 2 are two of the shitty movies we've ever made. The script never got right ... The director was the wrong one. Benicio [del Toro] was lousy. Everything was lousy. "

- Ron Meyer, President of Universal Studios

Awards (selection)

Web links

Commons : Wolfman (film)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Age rating for Wolfman . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.btlnews.com
  3. ↑ a b Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.btlnews.com
  4. ↑ http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/14072
  5. ↑ http://www.cinemusic.net/2010/01/18/howl-and-howl-again-elfman-back-in-on-the-wolf-man/
  6. ↑ a b Wolfman at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed March 20, 2015
  7. ↑ a b Wolfman at Metacritic , accessed March 20, 2015
  8. ↑ Wolfman in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  9. ↑ cinema.de
  10. ↑ kino.de
  11. ↑ filmstarts.de
  12. ↑ Wolfman on moviepilot.de, accessed on May 25, 2010.
  13. ↑ http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/universal-exec-apologizes-admits-cowboys-aliens-wolfman-sucked