Wolfen

A politician, his wife and their chauffeur are found brutally murdered in a desolate, neglected area of New York. The policeman Dewey Wilson is put on the sensitive case together with his colleague Rebecca Neff. Who could want the politician dead? The forensic pathologist Whittington, however, is probably the one who runs into the greatest difficulties, for he cannot determine the murder weapon. More than anything, it seems as if the murder weapon was teeth and claws! Shortly afterwards more victims come in, which only makes solving the case harder. The 'perpetrators' turn out to be half wolves, half humans who are merely marking and defending their territory, but in the film they are simply portrayed as wolves, so there is not much horror in that. The director has tried to show the animals' point of view, as in the novel. It is a good idea, but now, almost twenty years on, the effect is a little pale compared with what could be done today.

Wolfen ought to be scary enough to keep me awake, but alas no, I dozed off several times. It is clear that the director is trying to build up a special, atmospheric mood, but he rarely succeeds. Moreover, it seemed artificial that there was almost no dialogue. That also meant that one never really got close to Finney's and Venora's characters, so one was precisely not sitting there afraid of what might happen to them. The horror was simply drained out of the film.