When I was growing up there were three main monsters I was raised with. Those of course being Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man. While some of my friends were Dracula fans, some of them were Frankenstein fans. They all had their reasons for who they liked. While I didn’t dislike Dracula, I mean what’s not to like? Who wouldn’t like being the Final Boss vampire? Who wouldn’t want to be a vampire? Well, I guess a lot of people wouldn’t want to, but I can see why anyone would. Except for that drinking blood stuff and the can’t be out during the day rule the rest is a cakewalk. Yeah, you must watch everyone you love grow old and die, unless you turn them too but then you have to spend the rest of eternity with them. Yikes! Thinking about that, I wonder what the divorce rate is among vampires? After a couple hundred years with the same person, it’s gotta get old, right? But either way, I didn’t want to be a vampire. Being Frankenstein I understand liking the character but I don’t see where people want to be Frankenstein’s monster. Who wants to be a sewn together undead creature made in a mad scientists lab? Well, that’s about as cool as I can make it. Unless you’re Peter Boyle from Young Frankenstein I don’t think there is any upside to being a modern day Prometheus.
Now, all those are fine to watch and maybe even root for at times, but did I like them enough to be them? Not really. But then there is Larry Talbot, he was my first Wolf Man anyway. Lon Chaney Jr. played the part perfectly. I not only loved his performance and interpretation of the werewolf legend I wanted to be him. Yeah, I know there are negatives to being a Wolfman. Wolf Man? The Wolf Man? Where was I? Oh, yeah, changing into a half man half wolf monster every full moon can have a way of ruining a vacation. The transformation looks painful, right? American Werewolf in London anyone? That’s some serious stuff right there. But here’s the catch, most of the werewolves (can’t say all of them because I think those Howling and Wolfen mo-fos loved being werewolves) don’t want to be werewolves. They don’t want to turn into cold-blooded animalistic killers every time the moon turns full. So, is one day every twenty-eight worth it? I guess it’s not that it’s something to strive for but if you are in that situation there’s worse things you could be. The werewolf is a sympathetic character in my eyes. I feel bad for them especially when they know the change is coming and there’s nothing they can do. Sure, you can try and chain yourself up and be locked in a room a la She Wolf of London (or Love and Curses as it was called here in the states) once a month but inevitably it’s going to happen and you’re going to screw it up and get out and do some murdering. Still, my answer is Wolfman is who I want to be if I had my druthers.
I know some will ask: “What about the mummy?”, and yes, you are right, The Mummy was another one of the first four original Universal monsters. You can be a mummy if you want but that takes like a thousand years of planning and waiting so you must be in it for the long haul with that choice. Then again to each his own and who am I to say any choice is wrong. But this post is about the werewolf legend. Wolf Man to be exact, from earlier this year, is brought to us by director Leigh Whannell who also co-wrote the script. Whannell also created the Saw series of movies as well as wrote several of the films in the Insidious franchise. Now we love him for Saw but not so sure about the other stuff. OK, the first two Insidious films were pretty good but after that it’s a bit downhill. Hey, I got an idea: let’s talk about Wolf Man.
Starring here is Christopher Abbott (Poor Things and Black Bear) as Blake, a writer who is trying to keep his marriage and family together. His wife Charlotte is played by Julia Garner (I Believe in Unicorns and The Assistant) who has trouble dealing with Blake’s anger issues. Matilda Firth (Subservience) plays their daughter Ginger. Blake, in an attempt to bring his family closer together, takes the family back to his hometown after he gets a death certificate informing him his estranged father has died. For Blake, home was the mountains of Oregon. Aside from giving us some great scenery, it also serves as a very isolated area for them to be in especially considering Blake hasn’t been there in thirty years. Blake sees a creature in the middle of the road and crashes the moving truck he is driving when he swerves to miss hitting it. The creature scratches Blake on the arm before the family can escape. Blake takes them to his childhood home and barricades them inside. His arm quickly becomes infected, and he begins to have some fairly troubling side effects from the scratch.
