I was asked to review this film because of the house that is similar to the movie North by Northwest [1959] by Alfred Hitchcock who we all know Baron loves.
Wolf was released to theaters in June 1994 from Columbia Pictures, director Mike Nichols and screenwriters Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick. I thought it would be like any other werewolf movie for example The Wolf Man [1941] or An American Werewolf in London [1981] however it’s a bit different. Yes, it has the stereotypes of a werewolf movie, but you don’t actually see the transformation like in the previous named films. You do see him as the fully formed Wolf Man however only snippets are done.
Jack Nicholson
Will Randall (Jack Nicholson (The Shining [1980])) the top editor of a New York publishing house was driving home and hit a wolf and of course as horror movies go he approaches the wolf instead of drive away and is bitten by it. When he gets home he finds out at a party that he just lost his job to his protégé Stewart (James Spader (Jack’s Back [1988])) after billionaire Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer (Dracula 2000 [2000])) bought it out. At this party Will meets Raymond’s wife Laura (Michelle Pfieffer (What Lies Beneath [2000])) and soon they become close. As the days progress Will starts realizing he’s having symptoms he’s never experienced before such as heightened abilities of smell and hearing, almost like an animal like possession and it’s with these senses he finds out that his wife Charlotte (Kate Nelligan (Dracula [1979])) is cheating on him with Stewart and confronts them and takes a snarling swipe at him in the process. Will then goes to see Dr. Vijay Alezais (Om Puri) who is an expert in animal transformations (lycanthrope) and of course he is skeptical of him, but the doctor does give him an amulet which is supposed to keep the transformation into a werewolf at bay.
Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer
Laura meets with Will again and starts dating him despite what her father thinks, and he spends the night. During the night he wakes up and goes on the prowl first causing havoc at a zoo and runs into an officer (David Schwimmer) then escapes and encounters a group of hoodlums and tears them apart. To Laura he just disappears in the night like all men, but when he calls and convinces her to her see him again she agrees to meet at his hotel where Will runs into his wife and won’t take her back then goes back to his room and realizes he’s done bad things and doesn’t want to let Laura in and of course she finds a way. He tells her the whole story and doesn’t believe him and even gives him an alibi when the police show up and notify him that Will’s wife was just killed. Will assumes he killed her during one of his nighttime jaunts and yet Laura takes him back to her home and on the way realizes that he really may be the attacker, and something is wrong with him. She locks him in her barn and goes to the police station where she runs into Stewart who is clearly in a rage (remember Will bit him) and gets extremely frightened and goes back home as soon as possible. Stewart follows and kills some of the grounds people and tries to go after her and Will comes to her defense for the final act of the werewolf battle. In the end she stares into the woods almost like she’s turned into a wolf herself while she didn’t get bitten, she did sleep with him so could have turned her?
James Spader
Wolf is enjoyable to watch as it’s a different take on the Werewolf lore yes, not like The Wolf Man but still good for the 1990s. Jack Nicholson does an excellent job as the werewolf and trying to figure out why he’s becoming it, and James Spader is always good at playing the bad guy. At least it’s not like the werewolves in the Twilight movies which are definitely not realistic. This is recommended for all types of horror fans, but also ones that like mystery, thriller, and romance.
Well, what do you think?
TAGLINES:
- Inside every man there are two people-one good, one beast.
- Be Wild. Beware. Be Wolf.
- The Animal is out June 17th.
- The Animal Is Out
- Beware
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111742/
IMDb Rating: 6.3/10
3C Rating: 6.0/10