Wolfman021810

=‘Wolfman’ has lots of bark, little bite=

By Katy England edge staff writer kengland@themaineedge.com

====The remake of the horror-classic “Wolfman” had a lot of potential, but wasn’t really able to capitalize on it despite promising casting and a tried and true story.==== ====When Ben Talbot goes missing, his fiancée (Emily Blunt, "Sunshine Cleaning") contacts his brother Lawrence (Benicio Del Toro, “Snatch”) to assist in the search. Lawrence is reunited with his creepy and estranged father Lord Talbot (Anthony Hopkins, “Hannibal”) and informed that his brother has been found brutally murdered or killed by a beast. Lawrence vows to find out who or what killed his brother and begins to investigate.==== ====As he searches for his brother, old demons from his past begin to haunt him. Visions of his mother’s suicide and other monsters swim at the edges of Lawrence’s visit. When he visits a gypsy camp to talk to them about a charm that was found on his brother’s body, the camp and everyone in it is attacked by a terrible beast. Lawrence is grievously wounded by the creature and thus beset by its curse.==== ====The movie begins cool and atmospheric with candle-lit rooms, a moody and tortured Del Toro, and fantastic period costumes – all of which gave me great hope. But it was almost as if the director couldn’t decide what kind of movie this was supposed to be. It flip-flops awkwardly between being a story of a tortured soul to being a gore-for-gore’s sake splatter fest. The director opted for cheap scares rather than atmospheric suspense and sacrificed any empathetic link the audience may have had with the characters. The audience is cheated out of being able to feel for Lawrence’s plight because the director doesn’t give them a chance. Instead, they are fed the plot in tidy spoonfuls of exposition leaving nothing for them to experience but cheap thrills and dripping blood. Meh.====

Two out of five
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