Wolfen

Wolfen
by Michael Wadleigh

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Movie Reviews of Wolfen

Movie Review: Nice Doggy
Summary: 5 Stars

I saw a snippet of "Wolfen" when I was a child, and it terrified me and dominated my dreams for weeks thereafter. I dreamed I was outside the ruined church in the Bronx slums that features so prominently in the film, that I was crawling over mounds of garbage and trying to find my parents, and that I was being watched. There were eyes, merciless, hungry eyes, fixed on me from the surrounding ruined tenements and the derelict, haunted cathedral.

Imagine my surprise years later when I learned that Wadleigh incorporates this attitude of lurking, haunted menace, this watchful malevolence, into his fine film about lycanthropy. Having discovered "Wolfen", for years it was incorporated into my Halloween film-viewing ritual; even now it retains the ability to terrify, disturb, and awe.

Wadleigh's tale centers on an aging NYPD detective (played marvellously by Albert Finney) called in to investigate the savage murder and dismemberment of real estate tycoon Christopher Van der Veer, his wife, and his chauffeur. Van der Veer had been planning a redevelopment in the ruined, devastated South Bronx, and Finney's investigation---aided by policeman Whittington (played with reserve by Gregory Hines)---brings him face to furry face with an ancient horror that pits itself against a sprawling, modern City. Oh, did I mention that this ancient horror has an appetite?

Wadleigh and cinematographer Gerry Fisher have an uncanny talent for capturing bleak, dessicated, haunted sites on film, and "Wolfen" winds itself around fairly elaborate set pieces: the Battery massacre sequence, the ruined Cathedral and slum in the South Bronx, the Van der Veer skyscraper, love interest Diane Venora's apartment, the besieged lab in the Central Park Zoo, a cable on the Brooklyn Bridge high above New York Harbor.

These stylish sets are aided and abetted by fine acting: Finney as the dogged police inspector, Venora as the steely love interest, Hines as the loyal partner, Edward James Olmos as the cynical Native American who knows too many secrets. There is a wonderful scene between Olmos and Finney on the Brooklyn Bridge which Olmos digs into with sadistic glee, and it makes the movie.

There are some other fine directorial touches on display here, particularly Wadleigh's spooky wolf-cam and wolf-vision: the stalking of a pitiful homeless man in the beasts' lair is one of the most terrifying put to film. Wadleigh provides a nice counterpoint to the wolf-cam with the green starlight scope-vision of Hines's M-16 sniper rifle, underscoring the battle---and similarities---between modern Man and his ageless Enemy.

This is not a film about special effects: there are no gaudy, gory transformation sequences here, and the film doesn't need them. This is quiet, mounting, full-bodied horror, though, and Wadleigh does a fine job in creating a sense of unease and malevolence, particularly in the sequence where Finney confronts some of the Native American construction workers in a Manhattan bar. The scene manages to convey malevolence, dignity, and sadness all at once, and is marvelous.

"Wolfen" is a movie that, for me, is all about Fear, about Fear Incarnate, about ageless Monsters forced to fight for their territory. It is one of the few horror films that manages to transcend terror and makes the leap into Awe.

Summary of Wolfen