Greg Vellante
Correspondent

“The Wolfman” is not a serious movie. When fangs and claws aren’t being bared, the characters may act and look as if they are in Victorian-era period drama, but the story is merely an iota of what the film aims to do; excite.

When respectable actors aren’t trapped in filler dialogue from “The Wolfman’s” passable script, the movie truly sinks its teeth in by delivering scenes of laughable yet gritty scenes of guilty-pleasure violence. The majority of the title beast’s screen time is spent viciously mutilating his victims in the most creative ways possible, every kill a little macabre masterpiece in its own. Just imagine if this was the route “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” had decided to take.

Benicio Del Toro stars in this remake of the 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. monster movie as Lawrence Talbot, an American returning to his ancestral homeland after the brutal death of his brother.

Anthony Hopkins has great fun playing Lawrence’s father, a character whose secret agenda of malevolence is revealed layer by layer as the film progresses. Emily Blunt makes do with her role as love interest Gwen Conliffe, yet the movie seems to only care about the climactic scene involving the actress running around in an undergarment.

Hugo Weaving also stars as a Scotland Yard adversary, but seeing as his facial hair was what I noticed most says a lot about his performance.

After being bitten by a vicious beast, Lawrence begins experiencing mindboggling alterations. When the first full moon comes around, Talbot endures a grueling CGI transformation into “The Wolfman,” a much hairier, much angrier monster.

Unable to control his behavior under the curse, Talbot goes on a rampage, killing everyone in sight. There is a brilliant scene where Talbot is captured and scrutinized by a mental health committee, who believe his claims of curse and transformation are mere delusions. In a claustrophobically locked-in room, with the full moon set to rise in any moment, a constrained Talbot warns the assembly of their fate. Alas …

The film is bloody good fun, not something one would recommend to their grandmother, but a movie certainly worth catching on a Friday night of boredom.

Despite operating on an immense lack of sleep at a screening where the projectionist seemed intent on screwing up the film as much as possible, I barely ever lost interest in “The Wolfman’s” entertaining appeal. Classic B-movie campiness drives the film, undeniably grabbing the attention of the audience and trying its very best to evoke exhilaration. “The Wolfman” succeeds.
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Greg Vellante is a graduate of North Andover High School who is currently attending UMass Lowell. He has been reviewing and writing about movies for The Eagle-Tribune since 2007.