Wolfen, directed by Michael Wadleigh, is another great example of a monster film. This time it focuses on a modified version of werewolves, or as Sean puts it, "... the creatures are not werewolves, but something far more imaginative and bizarre; in the novel, a scientist dubs them Canis Lupis Sapiens." This use of a creature that is similar to a werewolf, and yet not a werewolf, is an interesting way of keeping the monster genre fresh. Wolfen is an interesting take on the monster genre, because it focuses on portraying the Wolfen as the victims, instead of the humans. Towards the end of the film, we have a scene in which Dewey enters a Native American bar and Eddie tells him about the Wolfen. The video down below shows this scene. In this scene we find out what the creatures are, and we also find out that they are the victims. They are viewed as gods by the Native Americans and are believed to watch over society. They only attack sickly people and those that intrude on their territory. With this information, the audience starts feeling a little bad for them and understand why they do what they do. Another reason why the Wolfen start attacking people, is because of the destruction of their land. As we see in the beginning of the film, and in the picture down below, the only thing standing is one building in the middle of debris. "The shooting by Gerry Fischer is the true show stealer. He throws haunting light across immaculate production design and manages to transform the abandoned neighborhoods of the South Bronx into a war torn vision of the southwest and plains states with shanty towers and charred churches replacing the rocky buttes and mesas." This sudden disturbance in the Wolfen's territory is what sets them off and we start feeling bad for them. They attack Christopher van der Veer because of his project to rebuild their territory into something else. So in a sense, the real monster in this film is not the Wolfen, but the humans and machines that are destroying the buildings. That being said, the Wolfen don't get all of the sympathy. During the film, we see they kill a sickly man and another man that is just walking across the bridge. Though the Native Americans explain that they kill sick people in order to save them, that still isn't the best reasoning. As well as the one man that is killed as he is crossing the bridge. This death felt like the Wolfen didn't really care and killed whoever was in the way. Especially since later they refuse to kill Dewey, because he drops his gun and destroys the model. That being said, there is still this perception that the real monsters might not be the Wolfen, but instead the humans. Another great thing about this film, was the use of its camera to capture the Wolfen's perspective. As Tracy puts it, "Wolfen was known as one of the first uses of the in-camera effect, similar to thermography, to portray the subjective view of an evil creature, leading the way for others like John McTiernan's Predator (1987)." This vision can be seen in the video down below. What I liked about this camera effect is that you always knew when your were viewing the film through the Wolfen's perspective. As well as being able to see how the Wolfen hunt and see their prey. It was an interesting effect that is later used in the Predator films. This sense of being able to see how the creatures move and see is what makes the audience understand the creatures more. Especially since it takes a good portion of the film, before the audience is even shown the creature's true form. A final note on this film is the suspense and mystery behind the Wolfen. For a good portion of the film, the audience is not given a visual example of the creature. Instead we see everything through the point of view of the Wolfen. This adds to the suspense and mystery behind the creatures. It also adds this sense of the supernatural, which is what the characters feel when they don't know what could have killed the victims. Overall, Wolfen is a great monster film that uses a cleaver camera style to build suspense and mystery behind the creatures. It creates this horror feeling, that the audience constantly feels throughout the film, even though most of the time they don't even realize it. Which has to do a lot with the unease and mystery behind the Wolfen and their abilities. In the end, Wolfen is a great horror film and a fresh take on the werewolf formula.
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