CLAYTON'S CREEPY CINEMA!
WEEK 3: HAIR-RAISING HORRORS
Wolfen (1981)
Following An American
Werewolf in London’s well executed premise, excellent special effects, and
surprising level of hilarity, Wolfen is
an entirely different type of film—a whole other animal, you could say. Even
without comparing the two films too closely, Wolfen is not a great horror flick, and an inferior werewolf film.
It starts with a rich heir and his coke-head wife going for a
walk in Battery Park before sunup. Something mysterious is stalking them, and
we get to see from the creature’s point of view of distorted colours and
amplified sound. It’s very similar to the heat vision used in Predator, but interestingly this film
was the first to use such a visual technique. The unseen creatures attack and
kill the two people’s body guard (black guy dies first once again) as well as
them. Enter Dewey, a hardened detective who goes against the grain and has a
troubled past. He is tasked with investigating the murders and gets paired up
with a female detective a little more straight laced than he is. As they probe
the case further, they discover the murderer is not human, and the audience
discovers it isn’t a werewolf either—not in the traditional sense, at least.
These spiritual, shape shifting wolves are more like actual wolves than
humanoid beasts. The wolves are defending their territory, and Dewey must
figure out how to stop them from killing any more people.
Wolfen is less
pure horror and more like a crime thriller with werewolf-type creatures thrown
in. If you go in expecting a horror film, you’re going to be disappointed like
I was. Even though it’s not really a werewolf film, it still has merit. The
pacing is slow but suspenseful, and it’s very atmospheric, with a grungy, grimy
look to it. The dialogue is sharp and clever, and the acting is decent, and
there are some scary moments. There’s a scene in a morgue that’s disturbing and
very well shot, giving us horrifying glimpses of dead, mutilated bodies. While
there are a handful of scary moments, there are also a handful of lame jump
scares and weird moments. The most bizarre scene is when a guy strips his
clothes off and runs around on a beach at night naked, thinking he’s a wolf and
attacking the detective. I’m not really sure if he actually was a wolf or just
thought he was, but either way it was strange. The middle of the film is slow
and a bit boring, and we don’t actually see the wolves until the third act. The
wolves are depicted by real-life wolves, so why didn’t they show them earlier?
By only showing us the wolf vision, it felt like they were building up to a big
reveal that the wolves would look really cool, but it’s sort of underwhelming
just to see a regular wolf. The realization that the wolves are killing to
protect the run down building district they live in comes too late because it’s
already obvious to the audience, and the ending is silly and unsatisfactory.
And what exactly is a Wolfen, as opposed to a wolf? I’m still not too sure.
Wolfen is a
strange film, but not really terrible or really great. In terms of straight up
werewolf horror, it fails to deliver, but if you want a spooky crime drama with
wolves murdering people in New York, it is worth checking it out. 
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