My thread for
Bad Moon got me thinking about another werewolf movie I really like, 2010's
The Wolfman, the remake of the classic 1940 film. I remember not liking it at first, but it's grown on me.
Stage actor Lawrence Talbot hasn't really had the best life. As a young boy, he found his mother Solana dead, apparently having killed herself. Traumatized, he began experiencing emotional problems growing up, culminating in his father having him committed to Lambeth Asylum in London. Considering the era, even a relatively upscale mental institution like Lambeth is pretty much a horror show, and Lawrence suffered so greatly from his doctors' attempts to "cure" him that he has virtually no memory of his time there, and left his hometown of Blackmoor to pursue a career on the stage in America, pretty much renouncing his heritage as a member of the wealthy and influential Talbot family, becoming estranged from his father Sir John Talbot. And now there is more bad news. His younger brother Ben has been killed. Considering that aside from the family's Sikh servant Singh, Ben was the only person in the household who Lawrence at all loved or cared about after his mother died, to say he is distraught would be an understatement.
On the train to Blackmoor, he befriends an elderly man who gives him a cane with a silver wolf's head for a handle in a gesture of sympathy after hearing about his hard life. Or tries to. Lawrence politely refuses, but when he wakes up after a nap, he discovers that the old man, not taking no for an answer, politely left the cane behind for him when he got off at his stop while Lawrence was sleeping. But that random guy on the train is the last bit of warmth and kindness he'll get for a while. Ben's body is in a horrible condition, having been gruesomely mutilated by some kind of vicious animal. His reception at Talbot Hall - Singh aside - is less than warm. Sir John is aloof to say the least. Apparently he resented Lawrence running off and despite saying he's glad that he's back, he sure isn't acting like it. And meanwhile the family has fallen on hard times. Even when Ben was alive, Talbot Hall was not a happy place and has fallen into severe disrepair. Although he is still quite wealthy and the Talbot name still carries some respect in town, it's obvious that Sir John is losing his influence. To who, we find out when Lawrence goes to the local pub to drown his sorrows and overhears the local squire, Timothy Strickland, holding court at a nearby table with a few other local men, including gamekeeper MacQueen, physician Dr. Lloyd, retired officer Colonel Paul Montford and the
very severe vicar, Reverend Fisk. The town's only policeman, Constable Nye, is also present, but not really part of Strickland's little club.
The men's topic of conversation is Ben's death and what could've killed it. Putting in his opinion despite no one asking for it, bartender Thomas Kirk is positive it's the bear owned by the local tribe of Gypsies. The others don't give this much weight. MacQueen is positive it's a werewolf, but the only person he can get to agree with him is Fisk. Somehow or another the conversation gets around to how Sir John married a "Gypo whore queen" and thus her sons are half-breeds. Losing his temper, Lawrence confronts them over this hideous insult, which only gets him thrown out of the bar by Kirk (in the novelization, the only one who shows him any sympathy is Constable Nye, who apologizes for the others' ignorance). Lawrence heads home and has a talk with Singh, who apparently shares MacQueen's opinion that it's a werewolf, and furthermore that there've been similar incidents in Blackmoor before, considering he keeps a stock of silver bullets for his personal ornate hunting rifle (Blackmoor having a history of violent attacks by some unknown animal is also why MacQueen is so certain a werewolf is to blame). There's more Singh evidently wishes to tell his employer's son, but he clams up after a bit.
Having been away for so long, Lawrence realizes his brother is a stranger to him. In trying to learn more about him, he discovers that shortly before he died, he was engaged to be married to Gwen Conliffe, who lives in Blackmoor, although her father owns an antique store in London. Lawrence and Gwen hit off pretty quickly, despite the awkwardness of their growing romance only being possible because Ben is dead. They both try to make the best of it, although it doesn't really seem like Sir John approves. Not that Lawrence really cares much what his father thinks. Interestingly, before Ben is buried, it is revealed that Sir John ordered all his personal possessions entombed with him. The butcher who's been keeping the body on ice doesn't think this is right and so disobeys him, giving Ben's things to Lawrence. They include a silver talisman which Lawrence figures is of Romani origin. Between that and the fact Sir John lets the Gypsies live on Talbot land (which is why the townspeople believed Solana was Romani; according to the novelization she was actually Hispanic or at least Spanish), Lawrence decides he may as well go and see the Gypsies and ask them just what the deal is with their connection to the Talbots if his mother wasn't one of them. Upon arriving, he's told to see Maleva, who is apparently the leader. She isn't much help, though she does intimate that there is something wrong and poisonous about the Talbots. At least Sir John's generation and in particular Sir John himself.
There's a commotion outside. Grabbing the gun he brought with him, Lawrence heads outside to find that asshole Kirk the bartender and some local toughs demanding the Gypsies' pet bear. He's still on about the animal being the culprit in Ben's death and is demanding he be put down. There's something of an armed standoff which is broken up by Constable Nye, who apparently heard what Kirk was planning. Sick of his shortsighted stupidity, he tells Kirk in no uncertain terms he isn't hurting the bear. Lawrence meanwhile wants the bartender and his posse off of Talbot land
now.
Suddenly, everything goes wrong. Something big and mean is amongst the camp. An enormous, gray-furred bipedal creature that takes out the camp's armed guards before starting in on the unarmed Gypsies, with a special focus on the women and children. Kirk and his men prove to be cowards unwilling to help, and Kirk does everyone a favor by getting himself killed trying to flee, attracting the thing's attention. Constable Nye does his best to defend the defenseless and kill the thing, but dies after having his jaw torn off (!). Wielding his hunting rifle, Lawrence shoots at the monster, which apparently really
is a werewolf, but this does diddly squat and the creature singles out one Gypsy boy and chases him into the woods. Lawrence rushes off in pursuit, and although he saves the boy, the werewolf takes a big chomp out of him. Badly injured, he passes out. When he awakens the next morning, he's been taken home to Talbot Hall and is being tended to by Dr. Lloyd (the least jerkish of Strickland's inner circle). Lloyd is a little surprised at Lawrence's condition. The bite should've killed him, but not only is he alive, he is recovering rather well. A little
too well. Before you know it, he's gone and tattled to Strickland who turns up with Reverend Fisk and an armed posse, demanding that Lawrence turn himself in. To who, exactly, I'm not sure; with Nye dead, there's no law enforcement in town. I guess Strickland thinks he can just declare martial law. As for why he even
wants Lawrence, apparently Fisk has convinced him that there really
is a werewolf, and since Lawrence got bitten by it and survived, well... you do the math. Though this exposes Strickland for a fool considering even if he locks Lawrence up, there's still the other werewolf to deal with. I guess he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it.
Sir John actually bothers to show a bit of fatherly love by chasing the men off both with his own hunting rifle as well as telling a fib about Singh being in position on the roof with his own gun. Strickland and co. vamoose. It seems at last things are improving between Lawrence and his father. Meanwhile, there's a new face in Blackmoor, Scotland Yard's Inspector Francis Aberline. When one guy gets mauled, that's the local constable's problem. When an entire camp of people plus said constable get ripped to bits, then the Yard
has to take a hand in things. Aberline doesn't believe a word of this werewolf malarkey, and his very polite but ominous suggestion is that it's very strong, very savage people doing the murders. His first meeting with Lawrence is cold and doesn't end well. Strickland, dismissing Aberline as useless, organizes a hunt for the werewolf on the next full moon consisting of his little group of buddies. Well, minus one. Fisk thinks this is a bad idea and chooses instead to lock himself and all the townspeople in the church that night.
Then Sir John does something strange. He goes to an old stone building on the Talbot property. Following him, Lawrence sees him lock himself into a cell which has a chair equipped with chains and heavy duty straps. Uh-oh. Even as the truth is dawning on his son, Sir John casually admits that he is the werewolf who killed Ben and everyone else, though he locks himself in most nights. He's pretty chill about the whole thing, almost as if he doesn't see being a werewolf as being that big of a deal. And fate has handed him a huge opportunity. Since he bit Lawrence, now Lawrence will become a werewolf too, and locked outside as he is, he will run free and take some of the heat off of him. One agonizing transformation later, Lawrence is running loose in the woods. He smells blood. Literally. See, although he's nominally the leader, Strickland has no idea what he's doing, and so MacQueen basically takes over the hunting party, leaving a tied up stag with a cut in its side to attract Lawrence. It works. And then some.
Although he falls into the pit the men dug and they fire down into it, it doesn't seem to be doing much good (silver bullets, you morons!). Strickland botches things when he gets too close. Lawrence pulls him and disarms him. Literally. Welp, I guess that makes Sir John top dog (literally, heh) in Blackmoor once again. Then Lawrence gets out and it's MacQueen's turn. The other two bolt. Colonel Montford stumbles into some very inconvenient quicksand. Rather than die sinking into the muck or by getting killed by the monster, he chooses to blow his own brains out... but he forgot to reload after shooting into the pit. Click. A good swipe from Lawrence takes his head off. That leaves Lloyd. Sad to see him go, as he's the least jerkish of these guys, but in his current state, Lawrence is mad with bloodlust and relentlessly pursues and kills the hapless doctor.
The next morning, Lawrence, human again, is quickly found and arrested by Inspector Aberline and his men. Armed with his regained influence, Sir John, also back to normal, persuades Scotland Yard to have his son committed for psychiatric evaluation rather than jailed and put on trial. But in an especially nasty bit of twisting the knife, it's Lambeth Asylum he advise Lawrence be sent to. The place he was sent to as a kid after finding his mother dead. And the head psychiatrist, Dr. Hoenneger, is a soft-spoken sadistic nutjob who employs nothing but brutish thugs as orderlies. His attempts to "cure" Lawrence are also weird, as he injects him with who knows what, then straps him to a tilting table and has orderly Ripler repeatedly dunk him in ice water (!). He also explains that he plans to show Lawrence off to an entire crowd of doctors on the next full moon to prove, when (he thinks) he doesn't transform that all the werewolf nonsense is all in his head, more trauma lingering from his childhood. Lawrence thinks this is a very bad idea for obvious reasons, but Hoennegger ain't in a listenin' mood and has Ripler keep dunking him.
Later, in his cell, Lawrence receives a most unwelcome visit from his father. And their relationship deteriorates even further (if such a thing is possible) when John, explaining how he became a werewolf courtesy of a feral boy in India who bit him in a cave, casually drops that Lawrence's memory of his mother's death is all wrong. Solana didn't commit suicide. Her own husband killed her because she found out his secret (that and he managed to get loose). Oh, Lawrence did find her dead body, all right, but what his father tells him unlocks an extra detail; he found his father cradling Solana in his arms. But although John is human at first in this newly unlocked memory, the harder Lawrence thinks and remembers, the more and more wolfish his father begins looking. How and why he and Ben survived being killed then and there is something the movie doesn't go into, as I don't see why the wolfed out Sir John wouldn't also kill both of his sons. Anyway, Sir John says he's happy being a werewolf, as he finds running around as an apex predator to be exhilarating, and as for his remaining son, he is fully aware Lambeth can't hold him. He knows Hoenneger's plan is doomed and is just going to get everyone killed and allow Lawrence to escape and run amok in London, an idea he finds just perfectly delightful. He promptly leaves without intending to attend Hoenneger's demonstration.
The night of the demonstration comes. The orderlies wheel Lawrence strapped to a heavy duty chair into a big lecture hall full of doctors and reporters. Inspector Aberline is also there. Lawrence begs to be returned to his cell, to be killed,
anything to avert what is about to happen. Everyone has a good chuckle, especially Dr. Hoenneger, who, facing the audience, his back to Lawrence, begins some big speech about how lycanthropy is just a disease of the mind, and once the full moon shines in through the window and Lawrence
doesn't turn into a monster, he'll see it's all in his head and be cured, blah, blah, blah. And the first part of his prediction happens. The moon does shine in through the window. But literally nothing else he promises ends up coming to pass. Ignoring Lawrence's pained growls and groans, he continues his lecture, even as Lawrence begins violently convulsing and changing right there in front of everyone. Aberline in particular can't believe what he's seeing. People are beginning to start getting up and moving for the exits. Hoenneger needs another doctor to start screaming and pointing to make him turn around... and everything he's ever believed goes out the window then and there.
Lawrence Talbot, struggle against the straps holding him to the chair, is a monstrous werewolf.
At the drop of a hat, panic rules. Everyone stampedes for the doors, which open into the room, not out, and all the men trying to jam through hold it shut. Aberline gets swept up in the panicked mob. Ripler, the orderly from before, leaps into action and runs to grab a syringe. Hoenneger decides to leave everyone else to die by escaping through a side door the panicking crowd has overlooked, and which is locked but he has the keys for. However, in his nervousness, he can't seem to find the right one. Lawrence breaks free of his bonds and is loose in the room now. Ripler grabs a bottle of sedative and fills the syringe full of it. Air bubble be damned, he jabs it into Lawrence's back... and it does not a damn thing. Lawrence responds to this by flinging him around, then beating him to the floor and ripping his guts out in front of all the screaming people. Meanwhile, the terrified Hoenneger gives up trying to find the right key to the side door and, seeing a custodian mopping the floor through the window, begins banging on the door, demanding the guy unlock the door from his side. This attracts Lawrence's attention. Abandoning his attack on the dying Ripler, he makes a beeline for his psychiatrist, for the first time deliberately singling out someone who's wronged him, to the point that he actually passes up several more convenient victims to get to the bastard.
Either the custodian is an idiot and has no idea anything is wrong, or he just really doesn't like his boss, since he dawdles at getting the door unlocked from his side, allowing Lawrence to grab Hoenneger. He promptly flings the screaming doctor through the nearby window, where he falls and is impaled on the spiked gate of the asylum entrance. Good riddance. He then leaps out the window himself (and in the novelization lands on and crushes two orderlies), and is free. Now the monster is loose in London...