Year: 1981
Director: Michael Wadleigh
Screenplay: David M. Eyre Jr., Michael Wadleigh and Eric Roth, based on the novel The Wolfen by Whitley Streiber
Starring: Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos, Gregory Hines, Tom Noonan
Running Time: 114 minutes
Genre: Horror, crime, drama
New York City: Troubled former detective Dewey Wilson (Finney) is brought back on the job when a wealthy property developer, his wife and their bodyguard are found brutally murdered. As he investigates, Dewey connects the murders to a string of similar slayings throughout the city. Dewey eventually discovers the existence of savage, intelligent wolf-like creatures prowling the city.
This is a mixture of gory horror, police procedural and social commentary. While the different aspects of the film don't always hang together particularly well, it is a slick and often suspenseful monster movie. Albert Finney is very good as the cynical rumpled detective for whom carnivorous wolf spirits are just one more story in the Naked City. Diane Venora is good as the criminal psychologist who Wilson is partnered with, and there is good support from Gregory Hines, as Wilson's pathologist friend, Edward James Olmos, as a Native American activist, and Tom Noonan as a sinister wolf expert. The film gets good milage out of the run-down inner city setting, and it has some really effective horror moments. It uses a kind of electronic effect to depict the point of view of the Wolfen, which is slightly overused but effective, and also features a few too many fake scares where a character is startled only for them (and the audience) to realise that it's nothing. The Wolfen themselves are kept mostly off screen only appearing fully towards the end of the film. The explanation as to what the Wolfen actually are (a kind of Native American animal spirit) is muddled, particularly at the end. While the Wolfen aren't strictly speaking werewolves, they are lycanthropic enough for the film to be lumped in with the other, better known, werewolf movies released at the time, namely The Howling (1981) and An American Werewolf in London (1981), both of which were more successful at the Box Office. Despite its flaws, Wolfen is consistently suspenseful, and intriguing, the police procedural elements and the New York setting are effective, and the script has a welcome vein of cynical, hard-boiled humour. The plot is intelligent, and while the different themes don't always hang together, the film deserves credit for trying to do something different with some well-worn tropes.
Albert Finney and furry friend in Wolfen
