Beastly

The Wolfman (2010)

Benicio del Toro stars in this remake of the 1941 monster horror movie of the same name. I have not seen the original but this film does a great job of capturing the atmosphere of Gothic horror literature. Lawrence Talbot, an actor, returns to his fathers country estate following the disappearance and death of his brother to find out what happened for his brothers finance.

There is certainly a lot to like about this film in terms of the way it really captures the feel of the genre with it's great locations and touching on the themes of insanity and “the beast with in” but I do feel it ends up falling short. It neither explores the themes deeply enough to be a thoughtful horror film and it isn't scary enough to be a scary horror film.

I am also not entirely sure that the plot fits together that well, the explanation for the cause of the original killings seems to be an after thought and I was no convinced about the relationship between Lawrence and Gwen. It is a real shame because there is a lot of potential here in terms of the subject matter and the cast which also includes Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins and Hugo Weaving. The actual animation of the wolfman when it is attacking people does not seem that convincing either.

In the end despite the good parts I think I have to give this film a 3/5, a real missed opportunity but not a bad watch.