The Wolfman (2010)
The Wolfman (2010)
Country: UK/USA
Production Company: Universal Pictures presents in association with Relativity Media, a Stuber Pictures Production
Producers: Scott Stuber, Benicio Del Toro, Rick Yorn, Sean Daniel
Executive Producers: Bill Carraro, Ryan Kavanaugh
Co-Producer: Stratton Leopold
Director: Joe Johnston
Screenplay: Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self, based on the motion picture screenplay by Curt Siodmak
Cinematographer: Shelly Johnson
Editors: Dennis Virkler, Walter Murch
Production Design: Rick Heinrichs
Art Director: Andy Nicholson
Special Make-up Design: Rick Baker
Music: Danny Elfman
Costume Design: Milena Cononero
Sound Editors: Per Hallberg, Karen M Baker
Sound Designer: Peter Staubli
Visual Effects: Rhythm & Hues, The Moving Picture Company, Double Negative, Peerless Camera Company, Plowman Craven and Associates
Special Effects: Paul Corbould
Stunts: Vic Armstrong
Titles: Neil Huxley/yU+co
Length: 102 mins.
Budget: $120 Million
Locations: Chatsworth House, Derbyshire; Castle Combe and Lacock, Wiltshire; Black Park and Stowe Gardens, Buckinghamshire; Bourne Woods and Richmond Theatre, Richmond, Surrey; the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
Cast: Benicio Del Toro (Lawrence Talbot), Anthony Hopkins (Sir John Talbot), Emily Blunt (Gwen Conliffe), Hugo Weaving (Inspector Abberline), Art Malik (Singh), Geraldine Chaplin (Maleva), Antony Sher (Dr Hoenneger), Clive Russell (MacQueen), Cristina Contes (Solana Talbot), Simon Merrells (Ben Talbot), Michael Cronin (Dr Lloyd), Roger Frost (Reverend Fisk), Nicholas Day (Colonel Montford), David Sterne (Kirk), David Schofield (Constable Nye), Rob Dixon (Squire Strickland), Olga Fedori (Maleva's daughter), Lorraine Hilton (Mrs Kirk), Shaun Smith (Carter), Jordan Coulson (Wolf Boy), Gemma Whelan (Gwen's Maid), Mario Marin-Borquez (Young Lawrence), Asa Butterfield (Young Ben), Malcolm Scates (Butcher), Oliver Adams (Gypsy Boy), Rick Baker (Gypsy Man/First Killed), Emil Hostina (Gypsy Man/Bear Handler), Barry McCormick (Asylum Orderly).
Synopsis: England, 1991. Summoned by his missing brother's fiancée, Shakespearean actor Lawrence Talbot returns home and is reunited with his father after being institutionalized and sent away to America as a child. Discovering his brother has been found dead, seemingly savaged by a large beast, Lawrence determines to uncover the killer, only to come under suspicion himself as the murders continue and a Scotland Yard Inspector arrives in the local village.
Review: It's been a long, strange trip to the screen for The Wolfman, with director, Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III) replacing Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo), just three weeks before principal photography (after original replacement, Brett Ratner dropped out) and faced with the daunting task of persuading Anthony Hopkins to stay on board. Originally intended for release in April 3rd, 2009, then announced as "sometime next fall", when November came we were greeted with the news that Paul Haslinger (Underworld, Death Race) was replacing Danny Elfman as composer. Along the way, $20 Million of new effects were added (ironic, as Romanek departed over budget disagreements) and finally Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now) was brought in to re-edit the original cut by Dennis Virkler (Batman & Robin, The Chronicles of Riddick). The only bright spot in all this was the surprise announcement that the film would receive an 'R' rating.
The good news is that Danny Elfman's baroque score is intact and this puppy looks gorgeous, thanks to the astute hiring of Coen Brothers and Tim Burton collaborator Rick Heinrichs (Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes) as production designer. Soaked in atmosphere, Heinrichs successfully transforms Chatsworth House in Derbyshire from a model tourist attraction to a rotting hulk, draped in vines and weary with neglect. Cinematography by Shelly Johnson (Jurassic Park III) complements the design, with a steely blue/grey palette that pays sufficient homage to the black and white origins of the 1941 Wolf Man. Indeed, kudos is due to Johnston for being respectful to the source material and having the decency to attempt a grown-up remake with largely physical effects, as opposed to the usual Universal CGI kiddy-romps like The Mummy franchise and Van Helsing.
While there is two-thirds of a good movie here, things start to go wrong early, with the introduction of Hugo Weaving as Inspector Abberline, an awkward import from the hunt for Jack the Ripper, which is mentioned but carries no weight (it would have more resonance if there was a hint that Abberline had been sent up north as some kind of punishment - the film is set three years after the unsolved Ripper murders). Confusingly, the Inspector seems intent on pinning the early attacks on Talbot, despite the fact that he is clearly a victim, and was playing Hamlet on stage in London when the first deaths occurred.
But still, the rich atmosphere and the twinkle in Anthony Hopkins' eye carry us neatly through the first half, despite clunky dialogue from scribes Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en, Sleepy Hollow) and David Self (The Haunting, Road to Perdition) and the ham-handed handling of a gypsy camp attack (which features a nice cameo from make-up maestro Rick Baker), an event that could have built slowly, with mounting confusion, but instead lurches along like the title character, violent and shaggy.
Things really take a turn for the worse when we arrive in London (which looks beautiful thanks to those extra $20 Million), with Talbot betrayed, captured and ensconced in the asylum to which he was committed as a child, following his mother's apparent suicide. Here, despite a sadistically Dickensian proto-waterboarding sequence that brings to mind the Hughes Brothers From Hell, Anthony Sher's chief doctor sports a comedy German accent straight out of Young Frankenstein and we realize with mounting disappointment that Talbot will return north for an obvious, silly and frankly embarrassing final showdown.
Johnston's lack of facility with actors (he started out as an effects designer on Star Wars, before moving on to effects art direction on The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi), is also evident in scenes with Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt, where Johnston avoids close-ups of Del Toro, leaving us gazing at Emily Blunt's porcelain beauty and the back of Talbot's head as he speaks. This, along with Del Toro's glowering one-note performance means we lack the sympathy we felt for Lon Chaney (a vastly inferior actor) in the original and, in spite of Blunt's stirling efforts, deprived of emotion in the inevitable tragic denoument.
Not a total failure then and it seems odd to wish for less horror in a werewolf film, but it's tempting to imagine how a smarter director with a less troubled production and the courage of his convictions might have used the myth as a metaphor for the rot of the English upper class and given us a lycanthrope Howards End, or a gory Gosford Park, instead of this well-meaning but confused hybrid.
The Wolfman is released today, nationwide.
DVD Review: Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Country: Canada/USA
Production Company: Warner Brothers Pictures presents in association with Legendary Pictures, a Bad Hat Harry production
Executive Producers: Thomas Tull, Jon Jashini, William Fay, Alex Garcia, Ashok Amritaj, Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris
Producer: Bryan Singer
Co-Producer: Peter Lhotka
Director: Michael Dougherty
Screenplay: Michael Dougherty
Editor: Robert Ivison
Cinematographer: Glen MacPherson CSC, ASC
Music: Douglas Pipes
Production Design: Mark Freeborn
Art Director: Tony Wohlgemuth
Special Effects: New Deal Studios/Bob Comer, Dan Keeler
Visual Effects: Rainmaker Animation and Visual Effects/Charlene Eberle
Werewolves: Tatopoulos Studios
Sound Editor: Anke Bakker
Sound Designer: Kris Fenske
Special Effects Make-up: Bill Terezakis
Costumes: Trish Keating
Titles: Christina Beckert, Breehn Burns
Stunts: Ernie Jackson
Budget: $12M
Length: 82 mins.
Cast: Dylan Baker (Steven), Rochelle Aytes (Maria), Anna Paquin (Laurie), Brian Cox (Mr. Kreeg), Leslie Bibb (Emma), Quinn Lord (Sam/Peeping Tommy), Britt McKillip (Marcy), Lauren Lee Smith (Danielle), Isabelle Deluce (Sara), Jean-Luc Bilodeau (Schrader), Alberto Ghisi (Chip), Samm Todd (Rhonda), Moneca Delain (Janet), Tahmoh Penikett (Henry), Brett Kelly (Charlie), Connor Levins (Billy), James Willson (Alex), Patrick Gilmore (Bud The Cameraman), T-Roy Kozuki (Bud's Assistant), C. Ernst Harth (Giant Baby), Keanen Schnoor (Matthew), Catherine Barroll (Mother), Christine Willes (Mrs. Henderson), Ty Hill (Nathan), Laura Mennell (Allie), Gerald Paetz (School Bus Driver), Zip (Spite the Dog).
Synopsis: As Warren Valley, Ohio celebrates Halloween, the school Principal goes about his night job as a serial killer, a pack of girls, on the lookout for boys and a good time, harbor a deadly secret, a group of school children search for the remains of a tragic schoolbus accident, and the local grouch deals with a Pumpkin-headed demon.
Review: It's rare for a Technicolor, Panavision film, shot on 35mm, to land direct on DVD, but when the film comes from the increasingly mercurial Warner Brothers (who also delayed Richard Kelly's The Box from March to November of this year), it simply elicits a sigh. Originally festival screened in December 2007, and appearing on many genre critics' Best of 2008 lists, Trick 'r Treat was originally cut in linear fashion as a traditional portmanteau film. Recut Pulp Fiction-style the film was again tested in November of 2008, before WB threw up their hands and released it for Halloween 2009 direct to DVD and Blu-ray.
So, is this the ready-made classic many genre pundits would like us to believe, or the turkey that the instant backlash crowd have been railing against? The answer is neither, but it is a perfectly serviceable and enjoyable fright film, that perfectly captures the spirit of the season, even if it falls flat as often as it soars.
First time director Michael Dougherty is better known as a screenwriter (X2, Urban Legends 3, Superman Returns), and this started life as a spec script, picked up by Warner and Legendary who each supplied $6M. Quite why they lost their nerve, we may never know (Dougherty himself has never been told, and doesn't mention it on the commentary track), but the film's main benefit, may be what gave them pause: at its best, it's a perfect evocation of the 80s horror movie, not overly violent, but nasty where it needs to be. In short, good nostalgic fun, with an iconic new character who deserves his life as a spin-off action figure.
Reminiscent of Creepshow, and Carpenter at his best, with a dash of The Company of Wolves and Dan Curtis's Trilogy of Terror thrown in, the pleasures here are many, but the payoffs to each story are a let down, with the denouements eliciting more shrugs than aha's. The reveal that the bad guy in one story is the protagonist from an earlier tale is muddled by poor camera angles, and one victim's head on a plate is undermined by the fact that he was clearly buried alive and kicking in the previous scene.
That said, the structure rewards repeated viewing, with characters from one story interjecting in another, and a cyclical ending that clears up an unclear point from the opening. For all its faults, Trick 'r Treat deserves a place in your player this Halloween, and for many more to come. Like the holiday itself, it's fun, noisy, sometimes annoying, but hard not to love.
The version under review is the Blu-ray, which does excellent service to the photography of Glen MacPherson (Rambo, The Final Destination), production design by Mark Freeborn (Black Christmas, "Harper's Island"), who collected leaves for months, and sound design by Kris Fenske ("Masters of Horror", The Haunting in Connecticut). Extras comprise a commentary track, with Dougherty, concept artist Breehn Burns (who created the comic art seen throughout), storyboarder Simeon Wilkins and composer Douglas Pipes (Monster House); "The Lore and Legends of Halloween", a 28-minute featurette; additional scenes with optional commentary; School FX bus comparison, showing how effects were added to a key scene; Seasons Greetings, the animated film school short made by Dougherty in 1996, with optional commentary; and a Digital Copy for download. Disappointingly, the DVD features only Season's Greetings.
