The Wolf Man

Though I’m a fan of the period and the genre, I can’t give this more than three stars. George Waggner’s The Wolf Man lazily moves in safe clichés. It’s predictable and there is nothing surprising about it, the Roma actress doesn’t know how to act and the foggy setting of a 20-square-metre forest doesn’t add to the film’s charm. Furthermore, the father/son drama doesn’t lend it a deeper dimension either. Perhaps only Lon Chaney’s performance makes this film a classic. If nothing else, at least Werewolf of London, made six years earlier, offers a screenplay written with more imagination. (18.02.2007)

A promising premise shrouded in fog and supported by competent actors and a reasonable runtime, but that thrashes in a blanket of stagnating creativity, lacking a moment of surprise. Chaney is great and the beginning is exciting, but the most anticipated passages go around the viewer with a lack of expression that even the date of production cannot excuse. The transformation into the hairy monster is sloppy, and overall there is no dramatic drive that could satisfactorily sell the potential of the setting and escalate the tension to the heights that the comedic An American Werewolf in London reached with absolute mastery, and the fact that this is primarily a tragic drama about dealing with an unenviable fate does not change things much. The ending is OK, but I expected much more from a legendary horror film from my favourite era in the genre. (21.03.2019)

"As if dead men didn't have all eternity." A Universal classic that has only one significant flaw. A truly appalling “blow-dried" werewolf mask. Here the creators should have taken inspiration from Werewolf of London. And this is also true of the unimaginative superimposition during transformations. Otherwise, only positives remain. Chaney is the embodiment of charisma, and here he is clearly in his element. It is also full of tension, the music is first rate, and we even get atmospheric fog - served to us as a delicacy. It certainly does not copy the plot of its six years older (and better) brother from the city upon the Thames. It goes its own way. A way that has now been recycled countless times. Thus to reproach Waggner's Wolf Man for its classical scenario is not entirely, in fact not at all fair. (17.03.2008)