…at least until the next revival: are werewolves the next It Creatures?
I have not read the Twilight series of books. But as I understand it, the new film, New Moon, features some sort of apocalyptic face-off between the vampires — brooding Edward and his ilk — and the werewolves.
(This premise seems to me to have been lifted from the Underworld series, starring Kate Beckinsale — but those films no doubt lifted from some other source, and so on, and so on. For a genre so heavily featuring the uselessness of mirrors, the supernatural-near-human-monster films seem to indulge in an awful lot of self-reflection.)
Anyway, I just learned of the impending (February 2010) release of a remake of the old Universal Horror film The Wolf Man, starring Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and Hugo Weaving.
The Wolf Man has always seemed to me a sort of black sheep among Universal Horror’s unholy family from that era, its main siblings being Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein and Bela Lugois’s Dracula. It never seems to have acquired the iconic stature of the other two, maybe because no single literary work served as its source material. Even the supposed “ancient poem” which the villagers recite:
Even a man who is pure in heart
and says his prayers by night
may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
and the autumn moon is bright.
— even that was, in fact, composed by the 1941 film’s director, Robert Siodmak. Consequently, The Wolf Man seems to have sprung from nothing weightier than the Hollywood Dream Machine: the stereotypical backlot production, with a screenplay by a writer who was probably drunk more often than not.
[Aside: I don’t know who wrote The Wolf Man‘s screenplay, so I don’t mean the preceding sentence to be taken literally. That’s just the stereotype. No hate mail from descendants, please!]Interestingly, though — and again, speaking just for myself — I think the legacy of The Wolf Man easily matches, even bests, that of Frankenstein and Dracula. (To take one example: I don’t think many, maybe even any, horror film in the supernatural-near-human-monster sub-genre has ever improved on the giddy flat-out horror of An American Werewolf in London.)
Obviously, I have no idea if this remake will be any good. (For whatever reason, the filmmakers have opted to alter the title to use the one-word Wolfman.) Apparently, del Toro (who plays the title character) is a major fan of the original and pushed to have it redone, and — according to Wikipedia, anyhow — “the film keeps the plotline of the original.” But my favorite tidbit I found while reading up on it was a quote from makeup wizard Rick Baker. The interviewer comments that Benicio del Toro already seems somewhat wolfish, and wonders if that will make it easier to do the makeup. (The interview took place shortly after production began.) Baker says:
In a way, it almost makes it harder. Where do you go from there? He’s practically there as it is! [Laughs] I think what’s going to make it be harder is when we get into the transformation scenes; going from Benicio to Benicio as the Wolfman isn’t a really extreme difference. Like when I did An American Werewolf in London, we went from this naked man to a four-legged hound from hell, and we had a lot of room to go from the transformation and do a lot of really extreme things. Here we have Benicio del Toro, who’s practically the Wolfman already, to Benicio del Toro with more hair and bigger teeth.
Ha! No word on how del Toro might have reacted on reading this quote. But I like to think he bared his teeth.
Below, the trailer for the new film:
…and, just for the heck of it, the trailer for An American Werewolf in London, too. (When it comes to trailers, as in fiction, showing is always better than telling. But hinting at what will be shown? Even better!)
DarcKnyt says
I featured this one on my blog a couple of months ago too, when I first found out about it. You have a different trailer though. Coooool.
I’ve always been partial to werewolves. The mistreatment vampires have received since the Anne Rice era of Interview books has made me lose faith in the ability of horror to reinvigorate them. But werewolves haven’t fallen that way, at least not all the way.
As a child, the Wolfman movies scared me senseless (more on this in my post about the new movie). But they gradually became a favorite of mine by the time An American Werewolf in London came out in ’81. Awesome stuff, and loads of fun.
Here’s hoping this new movie prevents the disease which has befallen vampires from spreading to their less respected cousins.
cynth says
It’s so odd that you posted this today. I was reading the book, “Why Do Men Have Nipples?” randomly this afternoon and on page 183, the title that I read was, “Is there such a thing as a werewolf?” It goes on to say that there are two things which would have created the werewolf legend, as it were. The first they mention is Porphyria which is a rare heredity blood disease. The patients develop excessive amounts of hair and develop sores, discolored skin and there is a tightening of the skin around the lips and gums (making the incisors stand out like fangs). The other is a rare genetic disorder known as…well, human werewolf syndrome. This also has excessive hair growth as one of its main characteristics.
I was never particularly scare of the werewolf, I always felt really sorry for the guy who turned, as he obviously tried to warn people but they just wouldn’t listen. My favorite movie with Frakenstein, Dracula AND Wolfman is the one with Abbott and Costello. I’d watch it every time it came on one of those early UHF stations. The Invisible Man evens adds his two cents at the end.
Froog says
An American Werewolf In London is possibly my favourite horror film. I especially love Griffin Dunne’s complaint about the afterlife: “Have you ever tried talking to a corpse? It’s boring.”
Back in college in the 80s I read a werewolf book called The Orphan by a Robert Stallman. I gather it was the first part of a trilogy (The Captive and Beast apparently being the follow-ups, but I never found those on the shelves). Far and away the best horror or fantasy book I’ve read (not that I’m a big fan of the genre): it does a superb job of taking you into the sensory world of the werewolf. And – as if with Swedish vampire movie Let The Right One In which I reviewed on my blog a little while back – it’s not primarily about the horror, it’s a coming-of-age story about an outcast teenager, the werewolf transformations all bound up with the difficulties of emergent sexuality. I think it’s long out of print now, but I’d love to get my hands on a copy again.
The Querulous Squirrel says
Very funny quote about making up Benicio del Toro. Can’t beat the casting. I never saw an American Werewolf in London. Adding to my Netflix list.
John says
Darc: I found your post just now. (Yours is one of the blogs I can’t see from my PC when I’m at work, but after some doing some complicated thumbwork I got to it on the Blackberry.) That’s a creepy bit of background about the body hair; I’m just glad for your sake that you’d grown out of the phobia by the time puberty kicked in. :)
One interesting thing about werewolves, at least as depicted in the movies: there is nothing remotely sexually ambiguous about them. Oh, I’m sure female werewolves have been depicted somewhere, in some work. But to me anyhow the idea doesn’t feel “natural.” We’ve got Twilight‘s androgynous vampires (Anne Rice’s, for that matter), and the Bride of Frankenstein — neither of those seems a stretch. But a woman who becomes a savage uncontrollable superstrong hirsute monster…
Did you see Wolf, with Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer? At the end, as I recall, there’s a definite suggestion that MP has “turned.” But it never actually shows the transformation, which was probably a good thing; of all actresses they might choose to make over that way, any with anything like Pfeiffer’s ethereal look should surely be at the bottom of the list.
cynth: Have to say, you caught me completely off-guard at first by mentioning the Men/Nipples book.
Another real-life condition I’ve heard mentioned as a possible source for the legend is lupus. According to this page, for example:
(Actually, now that I’ve re-read that, it says that the legend feeds into the history of the disease, not vice-versa, but you get the idea.)
I suspect a taste for Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein almost REQUIRES childhood memory. But here y’go:
It was pretty neat that they got both Chaney and Lugosi for their parts! (Karloff said thanks but no thanks.) Wikipedia notes: “In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed this film ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’ and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.” Okaaaaaay…
Froog: Whenever Griffin Dunne is onscreen, he makes me laugh. But those later scenes in AAWiL are true classics. (Have you ever seen the Martin Scorsese After Hours? I guess you could call it a black comedy. Dunne stars in a very funny role as a man caught in a Kafka-nightmarish lower Manhattan.)
I regret to report that a remake of the film is apparently in the works.
Had never heard of the Stallman books until you mentioned them, but you will be pleased and maybe unsurprised to learn that many others share your regard for them. (Copies are available from a lot of online sources, although I don’t know how easy they’d be for you to acquire over there on the wrong side of the Great Firewall.)
Squirrel: Let me know what you think of it. It’s a very smart film, I think!
marta says
I was reading this post when my kiddo got home from the library with a book about the wolf became the dog.
I’m at a write-in and need to get to this next crazy novel, but…
Doctor Who did an episode with a werewolf–which may have infected the royal bloodline (scratching Queen Victoria). Watch out for Prince William!
And I won’t watch scary films, so Werewolf in London is out. But I do love the wolf in The 1oth Kingdom. Love him. Huff-puff.
recaptcha: Alisa seduce
marta says
Okay, so I come back by just to see if there are more comments here, and I see this recaptcha: bye bodice.
Earlier it was: Alisa seduce
The day before that it counted hunks.
Just an observation…
John says
marta (#1): All of a sudden — for some reason, I can’t imagine why — I’m picturing a lycanthropic action figure in a box on a shelf at someplace like Toys’R’Us… only I don’t see it there for long. [squinting into the future] No, it’s not in the box… it’s… it’s in a photo shoot! posed next to a mug of coffee! Huh. Does that mean anything to you?
So glad you liked Wolf from 10th Kingdom. (“A shepherdess/Is quite a mess…”) You’d told me you’d finished the first disk but I was afraid you’d hated the rest. Was it okay?
marta (#2): Fiction writers find narrative everywhere! So then, tack on this one for an odd little twist: taxpayer Samuel.
Hmm. A challenge…
It’s all rather Kafkaesque. Alisa seems to be a moonlight(!)ing government functionary in a small unnamed country known for its intrigue. She’s pursued her double life for many years, has been with many men. She wonders if she should give it up. Then the phone on her desk rings: her secretary in the outer office, reminding her of her next appointment. “Send him in.” The door opens, and in scuttles meek balding eyeglassed Samuel…
John says
P.S. Just noticed — Alisa is an anagram…
(And the recaptcha for this one: services twaddled. Ha!)
jules says
What a great cast they’ve got lined up!
John says
Jules: Yeah!
We saw a commercial on TV last night for a soon-to-be-released movie version of Nine, the Broadway musical based on Fellini’s 8½. Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Sophia Loren, Kate Hudson…
Yowza. Just yowza.
marta says
@John –
use the next recaptcha?
Samuel, who has leeched and bothered every remotely attractive moonlighting government functionary since 1971, hopes that this time the jewell will be his.
Yes, the recaptcha: 1971 jewell
Oh, and I loved The 10th Kingdom. Went out and bought it in fact. Huff-puff, I could watch him all day.
John says
marta: Don’t know if you’re still reading this thread, but here’s my next addition:
After all (Samuel tells himself), I have gone so far as to court the attention of former Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh. I once even gamboled on his front lawn, pleading for legal assistance in claiming the jewell which is — rightfully! — mine.
marta says
Lawrence Walsh failed to deliver, of course, even though he had clapped almost violently for Samuel’s gamboling efforts. But Samuel didn’t need to think about the violet-eyed Walsh. He now fixed the moonlighting Alisa with his gaze. The time was ripe to tell her of his plan. He called it his kingore to lend it a certain gravitas and panache.
marta says
That was supposed to be kingore plan. I am way too tired. @marta –
Jules says
John, yes, “Nine” looks intriguing. Daniel Day Lewis is profoundly talented. “My Left Foot” has always been one of my favorite movies.
“Up in the Air” looks good, too.
So many movies — and I haven’t even seen “Where the Wild Things Are” yet. I don’t think my husband and I TRULY believed folks when they told us how hard it’d be to see movies after kids.
John says
marta: But Alisa was not listening. She was zoning out, distracted, 100% restive under the weight of Walsh’s attention or, indeed, the need to interact with people at all. She was still freaked out about the near-collision on the freeway last night, en route to her latest assignation. Traffic had been unusually heavy, all the drivers even more aggressive than usual. But even so, the tractor-trailer driver in the lane to her left was completely out of control. He’d tailgated her relentlessly for a couple of miles, and when he finally pulled over as though to pass her she thought her number had come up, the big rig’s roaring wheels seemingly mere inches from her face: 0000.
John says
Jules:: As I think you know, I don’t have kids. But I’ve resigned myself to knowing my movie-watching heyday is way beyond reach in my past. Thank God for DVDs!
(I was reading a review the other day of that new Planet 51 animated film. I was curious about it because I wanted it to be good, even though the commercials made it seem a little too satisfied with itself. Anyway, halfway through the — not good — review, I suddenly thought, I haven’t seen Wild Things yet! And I don’t think Jules has, either! What’s this world coming to?!?)