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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.161.253.208
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 04:08 pm:   

It's a bootleg, but it still gave me a buzz;

http://www.worstpreviews.com/trailer.php?id=785&item=0

I have to say this trailer is a bit too long and the initial tastiness saps away. I can see why it was withdrawn. The movie does, however, look good I think, even if it does feel a bit big budget for my taste.
And is it me or does this feel like the delayed 'sequel' to those Coppola and Branagh monster movies?
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Jamie Rosen (Jamie)
Username: Jamie

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 192.26.212.72
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 04:49 pm:   

Links me to an Inkheart trailer. Curious.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.161.253.208
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 04:51 pm:   

Really? Just tried it again and it was Wolfie...
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Niki Flynn (Niki)
Username: Niki

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.32.69.29
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 04:55 pm:   

Weird. I got to the right trailer. Great cast and some gorgeous visuals. I'll definitely see it.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.159.152.164
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 05:00 pm:   

Looks a bit tasty!
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Jamie Rosen (Jamie)
Username: Jamie

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 192.26.212.72
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 05:18 pm:   

I clicked on the "can't see the player" link and it took me to the trailer just fine. Weird.

I also had a problem with Franklyn. Maybe it's the work firewall.
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 90.208.214.40
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 07:38 pm:   

I couldn't get excited about it I'm afraid.

And is it me or does this feel like the delayed 'sequel' to those Coppola and Branagh monster movies?

Spot on Tony my friend - that's why. It almost feels like Coppola does 'Legend of the Werewolf'. I might go & see it but I can guess the whole plot now and probably most of the camera angles as well.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.159.152.164
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 07:40 pm:   

'Style over substance' again then?
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.170.88.98
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 08:22 pm:   

The things I've heard about the production have made it sound better, to be honest.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.242.126
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 09:00 pm:   

I've been waiting all my life for the perfect werewolf film, but I doubt this will be it. Looks decent enough, but as John says, I can predict just about everything about it.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.170.88.98
Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009 - 10:37 pm:   

Yeah, it doesn't seem to be bringing anything new but maybe it'll have something more to it when we see it all.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Friday, January 16, 2009 - 02:46 pm:   

Not a perfect werewolf film, but I'd say Tourneur's Cat People approaches perfection on a related theme.
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Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 212.121.214.11
Posted on Friday, January 16, 2009 - 02:55 pm:   

My favourite Werewolf film is probably Ginger Snaps. It realy gave me the creeps (something werewolf films don't normally do), especially the scene towards the end with the two of them drinking the guys blood.

The first sequel was remarkably good as well but I thought Ginger Snaps back was pointless and just showed the girls had no real acting range - or the director was catastrophically bad
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Steve Bacon (Stevebacon)
Username: Stevebacon

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 90.213.27.228
Posted on Saturday, January 17, 2009 - 02:20 am:   

I haven't seen Ginger Snaps, but An American Werewolf In London was the last great werewolf film I saw. And I was 10 when that came out...
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 79.70.53.160
Posted on Saturday, January 17, 2009 - 11:54 am:   

Yes Steve - I love that film!
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.242.126
Posted on Saturday, January 17, 2009 - 11:56 am:   

Not a perfect werewolf film, but I'd say Tourneur's Cat People approaches perfection on a related theme.

God, yes. The best shapeshifter film of them all...

I'm actually very fond of the film version of WOLFEN.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.153.150.116
Posted on Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 04:56 pm:   

Went to see The Fourth Kind the other night - it was shit, but this trailer was fantastic! Watch both though -
http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/thewolfman/
I think I wet myself!
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 92.23.5.194
Posted on Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 05:06 pm:   

"I have to say this trailer is a bit too long and the initial tastiness saps away. I can see why it was withdrawn. The movie does, however, look good I think, even if it does feel a bit big budget for my taste.
And is it me or does this feel like the delayed 'sequel' to those Coppola and Branagh monster movies?"

The word was that Universal were remaking all their classic horror movies, and that both DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN would get the treatment as well at some point, though probably towards the end of the series - to avoid comparisons with Coppola and Branagh's versions. I know THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is the next one in the pipeline. But I haven't heard much after that. To be honest, I haven't much about any of them recently.

Personally, I'm quite excited by this - both for professional and fanboy reasons. I'd love to see a resurgence in traditional, period horror on the big screen. It's still a tragic 'no go' area for Hammer, but that might change if Universal pull something off.
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.163.2.144
Posted on Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 05:10 pm:   

The release of this film was pushed back three times. First Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo and helmer of many excellent music videos) was fired from the film. Then most of Rick Baker's physical make-up effects were replaced with CGI, then Danny Elfman's score was replaced. If it had been a Coppolaesque Wolfman film with all the originally attached talent I would have been very excited to see it- now they can suck my fluffy big ones.
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.163.2.144
Posted on Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 05:11 pm:   

Hello Mr. Finch- don't think I said hello! :-)
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Karim Ghahwagi (Karim)
Username: Karim

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.163.2.144
Posted on Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 05:38 pm:   

They also made a new rock'n'roll trailer. All I can say is that the photography looks bloody gorgeous, and del Toro is obviously an excellent choice. People think Coppola, because of the Hopkins appearance. I like Coppola's versions in that they were very kitsch-which worked- and both films had tremendous, and very vulgar scores which also worked. I don't know about Keanu though...
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Gcw (Gcw)
Username: Gcw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.167.117.66
Posted on Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 06:13 pm:   

Just got one thing to say....

THE HOWLING!

gcw:-)
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 92.23.5.194
Posted on Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 07:09 pm:   

"Hello Mr. Finch- don't think I said hello! :-)"

Hi Karim. Thanks for the welcome.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.0.106.15
Posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 - 05:13 am:   

I was hugely disappointed with Coppola's supposedly faithful version of 'Dracula' and thought Branagh's 'Frankenstein' was one of the worst edited films I have ever seen - atrocious really.

Both films were what I call pseudo-horror for non-horror fans and as neither was particularly well put together failed on all counts.

I fully expect any new version of 'The Wolfman' to be a CGI-fest bag of shite (see Wes Craven's 'Cursed' for definition).
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.219.8.243
Posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 - 09:20 am:   

I absolutely love Coppola's 'Dracula'. It's the best Hammer homage I've ever seen, and some of the techniques he uses are wonderful - some scenes are extrordinarily beautiful. The first hour or so, in castle Dracula, amounts to perhaps the best Dracula film ever made. Oldman is incredible as a vampiric pantomime dame. It's big flaw, however, is Reeves, who is awful (as per usual). The film as a whole, though, is a funny, creepy, crass, camp, witty, mad, poetic, prosaic, exciting mish-mash of style over genuine substance...love it.

Branagh's "Frankenstein" is another fairly good Hammer homage - with a great opening, but sadly the rest of the film doesn't quite live up to it. Still, it's an entertaining romp through horror-tinged gothic melodrama with committed performances from everyone involved.
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 - 10:36 am:   

I ended up buying both Dracula and Frankenstein on DVD, as both had merits as well as flaws IMO. Frankenstein was the harder sell where my wallet was concerned, because I got the feeling that Branagh and co. thought they were doing something very important, whereas Dracula was - as Gary said - a bit of kaleidoscopic, pseudo-Gothic fun.

I still have great fondness for classic horrors, though. I'd particularly love to see a quality remake of JEKYLL AND HYDE. I've seen many versions, but none have had the effect of the 1930s masterpiece. The Michael Caine effort from the 1980s was truly dire.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.219.8.243
Posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 - 10:48 am:   

I agree about J & H - the 1930s version is the only one that truly works.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 - 10:50 am:   

Rather too committed if you ask me... I can't begin to describe how much I hated Branagh's version.

Coppola's 'Dracula' certainly has its moments which makes the fact the overall movie is so insipid all the harder to take. It was my BIG cinematic disappointment of the 90s after promising so much.
'Dracula' is still my all-time favourite horror novel and Murnau's 'Nosferatu' my fav film version.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.219.8.243
Posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 - 10:56 am:   

'Nosferatu' is great, but my personal favourite is Hammer's "Dracula". The best vampire film, though, is Dreyer's "Vampyr".
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 - 11:05 am:   

I only saw the apparently heavily cut version of 'Vampyr' late one night on the telly many years ago so don't feel I've really seen it yet.

What I did see, however, was genuinely nightmarish in its intensity and lingered in my mind long afterward. I don't know why but it reminded me of David Lynch for some reason.

Dreyer was an absolute genius of the first water - the Kubrick of his day no less. I've seen properly and been blown away by 'The Passion Of Joan Of Arc', 'Day Of Wrath' & 'Ordet'.
Slow, beautiful, meticulously constructed and hypnotic cinema of remarkable depth and resonance.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 86.29.184.176
Posted on Friday, November 13, 2009 - 11:22 am:   

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but I noticed that Weaving's character is named after the detective who investigated Jack the Ripper.
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 213.158.199.101
Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 - 11:44 am:   

The Wolfman's original director, Romanek of One Hour Photo, left halfway through filming. Joe Roth (a fawning Speilberg/Zemeckis protege with a string of low-brow 'family' films to date)took over. Hope this doesn't mean it'll go the way 'The Island of Doctor Moreau', though not even Frankenheimer could save that turkey.
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.10.250.234
Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 - 01:02 pm:   

Try as I might I simply cannot find anything much to like about Coppola's Dracula, at all, even though I saw it recently under ideal conditions. Rather than being a Hammer homage it demonstrates all the things Hammer did so well by doing them so badly. I actually preferred Branagh's Frankenstein because it didn't feel as pompous to me (!) Dorian Gray is a much better Hammer homage.

My favourite werewolf movie far and away is The Howling which is near perfect, but there's a lot that could still be done with the subject. I thought Wolfen was really rather dull. And as for Naked Werewolf Woman....
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Steve Jensen (Stevej)
Username: Stevej

Registered: 07-2009
Posted From: 82.0.77.233
Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 - 01:37 pm:   

I think Coppola's Dracula tries too hard to be all things to everyone. It is memorable though and the fact that the film is focused on a 'doomed' love story is a plus, to my mind; it's difficult to think of Dracula as an unsympathetic character despite his misdemeanours. Unlike Lord P, I find it hard not to be fond of the film.
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.47.117.174
Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 - 02:25 pm:   

I liked Coppola's Dracula too - I'm a big Gary Oldman fan. Which reminds me I must watch Romeo Lies Bleeding again soon. Such a long time since I've seen it.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.194.217
Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 - 02:28 pm:   

I quite liked the beginning of Coppola's film, but not much else.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.230.138
Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 - 03:00 pm:   

I keep forgetting about Branagh's FRANKENSTEIN. Probably because my mind is suppressing it, like some awful trauma. Because Branagh's film there might very well go down as the worst movie ever made. Sorry, John, its pomposity is stellar, but beyond that - it's just - fucking - awful.

Coppola's DRACULA is a delight, and very memorable. Keanu Reeves almost ruins it, but then Sofia Coppola almost totally ruined GODFATHER III, an already ruined film, like Brando (for me) almost ruined APOCALYPSE NOW, a not ruined film. Coppola's got a problem with casting....
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.194.217
Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 - 03:27 pm:   

Whenever I look at the title of this thread the image of the Wolfman sitting in his trailer having a cup of tea or reading the paper comes to me... maybe he needs a trailer to transform, like Superman and his telephone kiosk.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.194.217
Posted on Saturday, November 14, 2009 - 03:30 pm:   

Telephone 'booth', not 'kiosk'... mind's gone wonky again.
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.0.106.15
Posted on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 04:11 pm:   

Sorry, John, its pomposity is stellar, but beyond that - it's just - fucking - awful.

Couldn't agree more and in fact it should have made my Top 10 worst films ever seen list. Replace 'Twister' with Branagh's 'Frankenstein'... yeah, that's about right.

Coppola showed no aptitude for horror whatsoever in his version of 'Dracula'. It's the least effective adaptation I have seen. A fascinating failure sadly.

Dracula is a creature of pure demonic evil in the book and to attempt to humanise him at all or make us sympathise with him is a big mistake completely neutering the power of the story. Max Schreck, Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee show how it should be done - even Frank Langella made a decent fist of it imo.

Brando was great in 'Apocalypse Now'... whatever are you talking about. It was a riveting portrayal of messianic madness descending into self-doubt and paranoia. He'd have made a good Caligula when he was younger!
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Steve Jensen (Stevej)
Username: Stevej

Registered: 07-2009
Posted From: 82.0.77.233
Posted on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 04:54 pm:   

That's a neat, and suggestive, link between Dracula and Kurtz there, Stephen - are such ambiguous characters really evil? This similarity leads me to ask: are they, in fact, human perceptions not of tawdry man-made Devils but of God in His timeless isolation, His limitless power?
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.202.206
Posted on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 05:18 pm:   

Kim Newman wrote a rather good Apocalypse Now/Dracula fusion in his story "Coppola's Dracula".
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Steve Jensen (Stevej)
Username: Stevej

Registered: 07-2009
Posted From: 82.0.77.233
Posted on Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 05:31 pm:   

Interesting indeed. :-)

Here's a link to Newman's novella, folks:

http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/coppola.htm
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 92.16.18.92
Posted on Monday, November 16, 2009 - 10:32 pm:   

JLP: "My favourite werewolf movie far and away is The Howling which is near perfect, but there's a lot that could still be done with the subject. I thought Wolfen was really rather dull. And as for Naked Werewolf Woman...."

There are travesties and real travesties, and movie THE WOLFEN is one of the latter because the novel it's adapted from was, in my opinion, one of the best horror novels of the 1970s.

I remember reading it in virtually one sitting. I've still got it, ultra dusty and dog-eared (no pun intended), and wouldn't part with it for love nor money. If anyone hasn't read it, I suggest they check it out, though doubtless its original power will have been negated by the naffness of the movie.

It really is a powerhouse prowl through New York's seamiest underbelly, where grime and danger lurk around every corner. I swear you can smell the trash and piss, and the rotted organs of the derelicts found slaughtered in the empty Bronx tenements. You feel intensely for Wilson, the weak and conflicted hero, who is pitted against the most ferocious predator that I've ever encountered on the printed page.

As regards the movie, I think that casting Albert Finney was inspirational (though he's a stronger character in the film than in the book, and is thus less effective), but what a shame about everything else (and why-oh-why use real wolves, who looked just about as cute as cute can be, when in the novel we were facing slavering wolfmen of superhuman strength and speed?).

These days, Hollywood are not too coy about remaking horror films that aren't many years old - FRIDAY 13TH, HALLOWEEN, etc - wouldn't it be great if they found the bollox to remake THE WOLFEN and this time do a proper job?
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.176.105.56
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 08:43 am:   

There are travesties and real travesties, and movie THE WOLFEN is one of the latter because the novel it's adapted from was, in my opinion, one of the best horror novels of the 1970s.

Bugger! I had the novel for years before getting rid of it. I never read it because the movie was so awful. One to look out for in Oxfam
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 09:27 am:   

John, another clunker of a movie from a very slick novel was THE KEEP.

Not sure if you've read F. Paul Wilson's original book, but it was superbly atmospheric of the Eastern Front and at the same time interwove masses of vampire lore into the plot. And then of course it was nothing to do with vampires at all, but was far darker and more mysterious even than that. When the movie came out, I thought the sets looked great, the casting of Ian McKellan, Jurgen Prochnow and Gabriel Byrne sounded inspired (muscleman Scott Glen I was less impressed with) - and yet it was such a disappointment. The plot was emasculated, the narrative was unclear, the score was a hopeless mismatch and, in that traditional 80s way, the solution to the problem of 'how do we make this really scary' was to drench everything in neon-lit dry ice (one reason why I can never support calls to proclaim THE HOWLING a classic). A huge disappointment from source material that was so different and so effective. I later heard that F. Paul Wilson disowned the movie to the nth degree, though I never actually saw an interview in which he said this.
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.253.174.81
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 09:34 am:   

Paul - I read The Keep in 1984 and loved it. I saw the movie a couple of years later and was very disappointed, but I also knew that the version I saw had been heavily cut (by the distributors). In fact I don't think the full version has ever seen the light of a projector, although apparently a lot of the dialogue that was cut was a bit silly eg:

Scott Glenn (to girl whose name I can't remember who he's caught searching through a drawer): What are you doing?

Girl: I was looking for you.

SG: Did you expect to find me in the drawer?
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 195.93.21.74
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 09:41 am:   

Quality stuff, eh. The fact that it was cut from the final print is quite hilarious. Did it strike no-one as daft while they were actually filming it?
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.131.109.157
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 11:37 am:   

That was quite funny!
I like The Howling very much. One of the very first films I saw when I got my job at the pictures in Crawley (lovely, iconic fleapit that it was). Still got the poster...
I liked The Wolfen movie! I must have seen it five or six times at that cinema - it got better each time. God, it was great there - like my own private cinema. Showed The Beyond, The Burning, Omen III(which I loved, btw), that film with Stacy Keach as a trucker (Road Games! That was it. Loved that to bits), the first two Star Wars as a double bill...
>sigh<...
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.131.109.157
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 11:39 am:   

And American Werewolf in London! It felt sort of tv movie-ish, that one, but I liked it a lot. The music is wonderful - quite Hellraisery in its way.
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Mark West (Mark_west)
Username: Mark_west

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.39.177.173
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 11:49 am:   

I adored "American Werewolf" (which, apparently, is going to be remade shortly) but didn't see "The Howling" for a long time - I read the book way before.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.131.109.157
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 11:51 am:   

The Howling book is so different to the film. Dirtier - there's a shocking rape in it that still haunts my memory.
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Mark West (Mark_west)
Username: Mark_west

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.39.177.173
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 12:52 pm:   

Part of the reason I held back on the film was because of things that happened in the book. In fact, from memory, the only thing that really coincided for me was the Marcia/husband love scene. I could be wrong though, it's been a while...
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Stephen Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - 12:57 pm:   

Best werewolf movies of all time for me:

1. An American Werewolf In London (1981)
2. The Howling (1981)
3. The Wolf Man (1941)
4. Curse Of The Werewolf (1961)
5. Dog Soldiers (2002)
6. The Company Of Wolves (1984)
7. Ginger Snaps (2000)
8. The Werewolf Of London (1935)
9. Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1942)
10. The Beast Must Die (1972)
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.233.241
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2010 - 04:55 pm:   

Well, my LES (Low Expectations Syndrome) paid off, because I rather enjoyed THE WOLFMAN! It was basically a superhero movie in tone and pacing - it was IRONMAN but with murderousness and gore. Sure, there was the CGI that I hate, but it didn't overburden it. It had an energy to it that kept me entertained throughout. Watch it more for its comic-book-ishness, and not at all for its "horror," and you might actually enjoy this one....
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 01:17 am:   

Saw this tonight...and bloody loved it. I expected it to be rubbish, but what we have here is an unashamed, straightfaced homage to the Universal monster movies and classic Hammer horror. Strong performances (Benicio del Toro reminded me of Olly Reed in Curse of the Werewolf), lush cinematography, solid and occasionally inspired direction, much more gore than I expected, and a lovely linear plot that could have been written back in the 1950s.

Considering the troubled production history, this should have been a hell of a lot worse. As it stands, I watched it with a massive smile on my face and the ache of nostalgia in my heart.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.0.174
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 02:20 am:   

Not sure if I posted this before, but here are my thoughts...

The Wolfman

This is a bad film; but not an uninteresting one. I found myself remaking it in my head shot by shot as it went along, imagining how exciting the art department office must have looked during pre-production. The magnificent production drawings tacked to the office walls, the model sets, the costume sketches and reference photographs. We live in a golden age of production design which goes unnoticed because the films themselves are often so poor. Some of the moon-lit ruins might be from a Casper David Friedrich painting. The production design of Talbot Hall (dead leaves carpet the floors, gate posts lack surrounding walls) tells us that Nature has invaded this house, and it has won.

The ONLY thing wrong with the film is pacing. This is the responsibility of the director and editor. Yet this is a huge part of what makes a film work or not. I kept spacing out some of the scenes in my head, modulating the pace, including empty moments, silence.

The choice to make the title character half-man, half-wolf was a huge mistake in 1994's WOLF and it's a huge mistake here. Since the half-human form doesn't communicate any better than any other animal, its only effect is to make the whole enterprise feel hokey. In common with modern films who depict powerful creatures fighting, people and objects are thrown around with such ease that the over-use of wire-work reduces gravity from a force to a suggestion.
Benicio Del Toro looks so bored that it's like watching a zombie play a werewolf. But the rest of the film is well cast. Anthony Hopkins has some evocative lines: "The past is a wilderness of horrors" and, waving a candle before his face "You see that I am quite dead." And just as Larry Miller or Christopher McDonald have 1950's faces, Hugo Weaving looks as if he's just stepped out of a hansom cab from the 19th century.

After Coppola's DRACULA and Branagh's FRANKENSTEIN, THE WOLFMAN reflects the decline in quality of the original Universal Horror Pictures of the 1930's. And yet, as I left the cinema, I found myself planning a sequel in my head. I wanted to see Hugo Weaving search the charred remains of Talbot House for clues, then use his new-found lupine powers to pick up the scent of Jack the Ripper again in London. I want to see a man who walks as a beast track down a beast who walks as a man. A film that, however inadvertently, triggers stories in one's head like that can't be all bad.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.0.174
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 02:23 am:   

I'm watching VAN HELSING and bloody loving it!

What's wrong with me?
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.237.87
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 04:38 am:   

It was good though, THE WOLFMAN, wasn't it?... oddly, it felt like Benecio del Toro wasn't much in the film... he was overwhelmed by everything else, to me, including his own lycanthropy....

You're entering my world, Proto... I'm alone in loving VAN HELSING, and thinking it an underrated gem... no crown jewels, but a gem nevertheless....

So what do you think of my other everyone-hates-them-but-I-loved-thems? THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN... THE AVENGERS (1998)... BASIC INSTINCT 2... dare I say the first TRANSFORMERS?... no, I dare not, not here....
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 61.216.49.174
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 05:21 am:   

The Avengers was a travesty. It had none of the charm, oddness, sexiness or character chemistry of the originals. Fiennes and Thurman were horribly miscast as Steed and Peel. I feel queasy just thinking about it...

Van Helsing was garbage. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a big disappointment, considering the source (which is brilliant). I'm not even going to get started on the last film you mentioned, Craig! And certainly not the (even worse) sequel....
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 75.4.228.80
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 07:34 am:   

*Sigh*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_P-v1BVQn8
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 09:43 am:   

But I liked The Wolfman because of its hokiness...it felt like one of the old Universal horrors as if it had been made now (if that makes any seense). I watche dit ona double bill with Cannibal Holocaust, and after the still-troubling horrors of Deodato's nihilistic masterpiece, it was exactly what I needed: good, honest hokey fun. It had integrity, i felt. It was what it was...and, as Proto says, the set design is utterly gorgeous.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 09:47 am:   

Van Helsing is horrible. I ritualistically threw my DVD in the bin. No heart; no integrity.
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.253.174.81
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 10:06 am:   

I imagine The Wolfman after Cannibal Holocaust would work quite well as a dose of 'reassuring' horror!

Van Helsing is indeed bloody awful. Like being constantly poked in the eye for two and a half hours. I was in Prague when they were making that you know, and used Hugh Jackman's toilet by mistake.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 10:13 am:   

Indeed, JLP...The Wolfman isn't even a horror film: it's a grim fairy tale. I loved its...coziness.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 147.252.230.148
Posted on Wednesday, June 09, 2010 - 01:31 pm:   

VAN HELSING works as an unintentinoal comedy, though. And I did jump when Mr. Hyde loomed into view. And the half-completed Eiffel Tower is exciting. And this bit:
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 01:07 am:   

I just watched Tom Hardy is Bronson. Fucking hell...astonishing.
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Paul_finch (Paul_finch)
Username: Paul_finch

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 92.0.204.9
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 11:00 am:   

Not sure if this is true, but I heard a story that not long after VAN HELSING was released, Hugh Jackman arranged a big meeting - studio execs, production staff, writers, financiers, etc - to dicuss VAN HELSING 2, and that he was the only one who turned up.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 86.24.21.38
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 11:03 am:   

Wasn't VAN HELSING 2 called SOLOMON KANE?
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Frank (Frank)
Username: Frank

Registered: 09-2008
Posted From: 85.222.86.72
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 11:12 am:   

Yes, I heard a lot of great things about Bronson. At its premier in London the film-makers managed to smuggle out a message from the man himself. The prison authorities were not best pleased. Hardy's had an interesting life up to the making of the film, too. He was addicted to crack, believe it or not.

Craig - afraid you're on your own with Van Helsing. BUT, one should perhaps approach it as an unintentional updating of the Abbot and Costello films...Abbot and Costello versus The Wolfman, etc.

Zed - though it's not essentially about the prison environment, the most disturbing film I've ever seen on the subject has to be Steve McQueen's 'Hunger' about Bobby Sands. It came out last year and this film is without equal in my opinion. It's about many things, obviously, but leaves all other prison related 'dramas' for dust. It was a traumatic experience as far as going to the cinema is.

It was extremely difficult sitting through it.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 147.252.230.148
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 04:33 pm:   

"At its premier in London the film-makers managed to smuggle out a message from the man himself. The prison authorities were not best pleased."

If that's true, it shows the film-makers in a very poor light. When the film came out they claimed that it wasn't really about the man himself and was in fact a composite character. So it seems they were giving this guy publicity.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 04:38 pm:   

'Solomon Kane' was very good... 'Van Helsing' was pants!
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 04:42 pm:   

All the release publicity I saw about Bronson played up the fact that the film was about the real guy - although, on the DVD the director claims that he was less interested in Charles Bronson as a man than he was of him as a concept: the notion Bronson has of himself inside his own head. After seeing the film, I'd concur with his opinion.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 04:44 pm:   

ps - For what it's worth, I don't think they had to "smuggle" anything out: Tom Hardy was gven free access to visit Bronson and correspond with him as part of his research for the role. There's also a recorded voice message on the DVD extras from Bronson, recorded inside the small cage he's kept in.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 04:45 pm:   

Hey, Frank - still working my way through your stories (when time allows) and think they're of a very high standard indeed. Subtle, artistic, bleak yet filled with empathy, and most of all well written. But more of that anon... when I get the time to sit down and properly articulate my thoughts.

First Ramsey, then Joel, then Tom Ripley have been occupying a lot of mental space recently.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.166.117.210
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 04:48 pm:   

I stand corrected:

"There was some controversy caused at the première, when a recording of Bronson's voice was played with no prior permission granted by officers at HM Prison Service, who called for an inquiry into how the recording had been made"

From wikepedia.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 82.11.81.115
Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 - 05:43 pm:   

Stevie, yeah, I liked Solomon Kane. I was referring more to the way Van Helsing stole SK's outfit and action hero moves (and then exaggerated them about tenfold). I'm sure there were people out there who thought SK was ripping off VH due to the similar costume designs.

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