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The Wolfman

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Stars: Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins

Director: Joe Johnston

Rated: R

Showing: Speciality Cinema, daily at 2:30/6:15/9:15pm except Sunday at 1/4/7pm

Runtime: 102 minutes

Horror

A remake of the 1941 horror classic starring Lon Chaney Jr. - a predictable and uninspired effort that is only saved by the special effects.

It may be sleeker but it certainly isn't scarier.

The year is 1891 and Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) returns to his family's estate in Blackmoor after learning his brother Ben has gone missing.

He has been estranged from his family for years since his father (Anthony Hopkins) sent him to an insane asylum after he witnessed his mother's apparent suicide.

When Lawrence arrives, he learns his brother's body was found the day before, mauled to death by a mysterious beast.

While searching for clues, Lawrence is bitten by a wolf-like creature and infected with lycanthropy, meaning he turns into a bloodthirsty werewolf every full moon.

Can Lawrence find a way to cure himself of the deadly curse, one whose origins will shock him to his very core?

Leads Del Toro and Hopkins are both Oscar winners but neither gives a remarkable performance.

Del Toro broods constantly and his monotone voice is perhaps a necessity to avoid revealing his Spanish accent, blowing the notion he is an English aristocrat.

Only Emily Blunt as his brother's fiancee Gwen displays any real feeling, portraying heartbreak, love as she falls for Lawrence and incomprehensible fear as she discovers he is a monster.

The special effects alone make this update step out of the shadow of the superior original and Del Toro's transformation into the wolf is mesmerizingly horrific and chilling as flesh bends out of shape, fangs sprout and our protagonist screams in agony.

The wolf's bloody killing sprees are savage and stomach churning, with severed heads and limbs everywhere.

The cinematography is suitably gothic and foreboding, with dark, cobweb-covered interiors, shadows, dim lighting and countless moon shots.

Director Joe Johnston - Jumanji/October Sky - builds suspense nicely through quick editing and a thumping soundtrack but he needed to inject a few more plot twists to give his revamp some real bite.

Watch if you liked: Wolf, An American Werewolf In London.

For more information about film times, call 292-2135.

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