**SPOILER BEGINS**
A rich couple are brutally murdered when they take a little nighttime stroll through the bad part of NYC. Detective Albert Finney is called in to investigate. It turns out the murderers aren't even human--they're super intelligent wolves just trying to protect their hunting ground. But it seems the city plans to demolish their area to make room for apartment buildings...and the wolves aren't happy about that.
This movie has good things--it's well-directed; Gregory Hines attacks his role and has fun with it; Edward James Olmos has a surprising nude scene and there is some very good special effects showing how the wolves see things. But, ultimately, this movie doesn't work.
It's a "message" horror film--it tries to give us a little moral message about civilization, the environment, Indians...You know, I go to horror films to be scared NOT have messages shoved down my throat. Also the film is VERY slow (I fast-forwarded through a lot of it); Albert Finney looks like he's drunk most of the time and the surreal touches just annoyed me. And, worst of all, the wolfen weren't scary! They looked kind of cute and cuddly not frightening.
This movie was dumped by the studio on its release. It's easy to see why. Horror fans would be bored and people who like message movies wouldn't see a movie like this. Basically this is an interesting misfire. I give it a 5.
A rich couple are brutally murdered when they take a little nighttime stroll through the bad part of NYC. Detective Albert Finney is called in to investigate. It turns out the murderers aren't even human--they're super intelligent wolves just trying to protect their hunting ground. But it seems the city plans to demolish their area to make room for apartment buildings...and the wolves aren't happy about that.
This movie has good things--it's well-directed; Gregory Hines attacks his role and has fun with it; Edward James Olmos has a surprising nude scene and there is some very good special effects showing how the wolves see things. But, ultimately, this movie doesn't work.
It's a "message" horror film--it tries to give us a little moral message about civilization, the environment, Indians...You know, I go to horror films to be scared NOT have messages shoved down my throat. Also the film is VERY slow (I fast-forwarded through a lot of it); Albert Finney looks like he's drunk most of the time and the surreal touches just annoyed me. And, worst of all, the wolfen weren't scary! They looked kind of cute and cuddly not frightening.
This movie was dumped by the studio on its release. It's easy to see why. Horror fans would be bored and people who like message movies wouldn't see a movie like this. Basically this is an interesting misfire. I give it a 5.