*******SPOILERS******* Uneven horror story about super wolves, Wolfen, who take matters into their own hands, or is it paws, when their hunting grounds, the city slums, start to be encroached by big city developer Christopher VanDerVeer and cause havoc in NYC by doing in anyone who tries to disrupt their way of life.
"Wolfen" starts off promisingly with a pre-dawn attack by unseen, you don't see them but they see you, assailants in Battery Park on VanDerVeer, his wife and chauffeur, much like the beginning of the movie "Night of the Demon". But as the movie goes on it soon begins to get more and more confusing and not making the point between the attackers or Wolfen and the American Indians whom they seem to have some kind of alliance with and disintegrates into just another whodunit type of murder mystery.
Director Michael Wadleigh throws a lot of red herrings at the audience as to what and why the Wolfen's are all about or if their really wolves at all or are really just disgruntled American Indians upset at how their being treated by the US government in regards to the destruction of their ancient and ancestral homelands.
"Wolfen" could have been a much better movie if it stuck to the supernatural angle of the Whitley Striber novel instead of trying to be both a crime and horror movie at the same time. It reaches a blood climax when the Wolfen come out of the shadows and into the open in the Wall Street district and makes their feeling felt with horrifying results. Good photography of NYC with the tragic World Trade Center in many of the scenes and very good use of the innovation of "Wolf Vision" every time we see things from the Wolfen's point of view. But it would have been much better if it were filmed in the wide open country-side of the American south-west where Indians and wolves lived in harmony for over a millennium instead of a big city like New York where both have really nothing in common.
Albert Finney at times looked as confused about what he was supposed to be doing in the movie as was the movie audience who were watching him.
"Wolfen" starts off promisingly with a pre-dawn attack by unseen, you don't see them but they see you, assailants in Battery Park on VanDerVeer, his wife and chauffeur, much like the beginning of the movie "Night of the Demon". But as the movie goes on it soon begins to get more and more confusing and not making the point between the attackers or Wolfen and the American Indians whom they seem to have some kind of alliance with and disintegrates into just another whodunit type of murder mystery.
Director Michael Wadleigh throws a lot of red herrings at the audience as to what and why the Wolfen's are all about or if their really wolves at all or are really just disgruntled American Indians upset at how their being treated by the US government in regards to the destruction of their ancient and ancestral homelands.
"Wolfen" could have been a much better movie if it stuck to the supernatural angle of the Whitley Striber novel instead of trying to be both a crime and horror movie at the same time. It reaches a blood climax when the Wolfen come out of the shadows and into the open in the Wall Street district and makes their feeling felt with horrifying results. Good photography of NYC with the tragic World Trade Center in many of the scenes and very good use of the innovation of "Wolf Vision" every time we see things from the Wolfen's point of view. But it would have been much better if it were filmed in the wide open country-side of the American south-west where Indians and wolves lived in harmony for over a millennium instead of a big city like New York where both have really nothing in common.
Albert Finney at times looked as confused about what he was supposed to be doing in the movie as was the movie audience who were watching him.