Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving

Director: Joe Johnson

Screenwriters: Andrew Kevin Walker (screenplay), David Self (screenplay) and Curt Siodmak (1941 motion picture screenplay)

As mythical creatures go, we seem to have been overwhelmed in the last few years: centaurs and unicorns from the Narnia and Potter-verses, goblins and beasts in The Spiderwick Chronicles and The Dark Is Rising and the angst-ridden teenage vampires of The Twilight Saga. With all these children’s films around you might be fooled into thinking these creatures of the night aren’t all that scary; The Wolfman changes that.

From the chilling recitation of the werewolf legend that opens the film, Joe Johnston’s remake of the classic monster movie The Wolfman embraces the clichés and preconceptions of Gothic horror in order to set its scene. Foggy moorland – check; continuously murky and rainy weather – check; an isolated village overlooked by a looming manor house surrounded by forest – check. So what could possibly go wrong?

Amongst this atmospheric woodlans a lone man treks, with only a lantern for protection, and you can guess how well he gets on (not very well!). It turns out the man is Ben Talbot, brother of famed actor Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) who soon arrives straight from the stages of London to investigate what happened to his poor, unfortunate sibling only to find himself emboiled in a mystery that will change him for every. And certainly when there’s a  full moon.

With such a deadly creature for a title, you’d expect a certain amount of violence but Director Joe Johnson pushes the gore to levels approaching that of a slasher-horror. Thankfully though, much of the mutilation is off-screen, with the audience only given split-second glimpses of the wolfman himself until the second act.

The CGI and make-up effects which grant Del Toro the more animal side of his on-screen persona, are both terrifyingly realistic and surprisingly well used, particularly when highlighting Lawrence’s splintering mind and his struggle with the beast within reaches it’s most severe. .

Anthony Hopkins, as Lawrence’s father Sir John, is on fine form and provides the most disturbing performance of the film, while Emily Blunt fits seamlessly into the period as leading lady Gwen Conliffe. Despite the usual necessity for romance, the film only hints at the tortured love that develops between Lawrence and Gwen, the reality and complications of the situation keeping them apart.

Hugo Weaving, though, is the real star of the show as the suspicious Scotland Yard detective Francis Abberline who is intent on getting to the bottom of the grizzly murders, no matter what ungodly horror it leads him to. The growling voice of The Matrix’s Agent Smith, the calm wisdom of The Lord of The Rings‘ Elrond and a hint of the cynicism and playfulness from V for Vendetta’s V come together in Weaving’s portrayal of Detective Abberline to create a formidable pursuer to Talbot’s uncaged beast.

There are some well thought-out set pieces and the flash back moments are used for more than just the sake of it, but the pace is uneven and it at times  feesl as if a bloodthirsty beast has been thrown in to an otherwise quiet period drama. Since it is a remake, and one determined to stick to the original tale, the story has little room for manoeuvre and leads to an inevitable conclusion, dissolving the tension and suspense that had been built up and falling into the trap of over-the-top action and splashy gore in an attempt to build a climax.

By James Parry

The Wolfman is released on 10^th February courtesy of Universal.