Review by Nia Edwards-Behi
Sometimes, you’ve really got to admire a particularly high concept film. ‘Small-town cop turns into a werewolf’ was a concept that had me hooked quite easily. The excellent promotional material helped a lot too, as well as the great wolf design and make-up, and the retro 80s vibe that’s so in right now. In advance of seeing WolfCop then, I was well on board with the idea and was looking forward to enjoying a snappy 80-ish minutes’ worth of gore and fun.
Alas, that was not what the 80-odd minutes provided. I enjoyed watching the film well enough, the gore that was there was good, and there was the odd laugh, but overall the film was just devoid of the inspiration of its entertaining premise. Ultimately, I think what left me cold with WolfCop was not how silly it was or anything like that, but rather that it was far too much cop and not enough wolf. The plot of the film is surprisingly convoluted, with the small town’s police force sharing an inexplicable backstory brought to life by present day events involving occult curses and mayoral campaigns, and I just wanted to see a werewolf doing stupid stuff.
The lead character, the wonderfully monikered Lou Garou (Leo Fafard), is likeable enough for an irresponsible police officer (his alcoholism is basically an unfortunate shorthand for ‘lazy bum’), but I found it quite hard to root for him. His friend Willie (Jonathan Cherry), a paranormal enthusiast, is much more compelling, as is his colleague Tina (Amy Matysio), a no-nonsense, efficient cop who blissfully doesn’t lack a sense of humour. It’s no surprise that a film like WolfCop relies on relatively stock characters – the abrasive sheriff, the vampish bar owner – but WolfCop, to its credit, doesn’t deal in absolute stereotypes, which is refreshing, except for, crucially, in the case of Lou Garou. While he does come into his own by the film’s close, he’s otherwise a somewhat under-developed protagonist.
Lou Garou also spends quite a bit of time as the titular WolfCop. As I mentioned at the start of this review, I’ve liked the WolfCop design since promotional images of the film emerged. It doesn’t always seem up to par in action though, but for a low-budget film with the guts to go for extensive practical make-up effects, that’s really quite a minor gripe. The film’s two transformation scenes are great, with one particular detail so excessively and unnecessarily gross that it immediately got me back on board with the film. The practical effects on display really are to be commended here, and it’s nice to see a desire to avoid the use of CGI. These effects are put to good use when WolfCop takes out a few ruffians, with heads flying around and arms getting torn off. Despite all this, sadly WolfCop just isn’t as fun as he could have been. His punny one-liners don’t really work, and the distorted voice work just isn’t all that great either, making some of his (limited) dialogue hard to make out.
I’d be tempted to compare WolfCop to Bad Milo, which is a much more successful, for me, creature-feature-with-a-heart. WolfCop does have a heart, which I wasn’t expecting, but it’s not fully explored, leaving the plot to seem, well, half-hearted, and the real silliness of the film seem lacking. Bad Milo gets this balance right, with the gross-out and gore moments working alongside a touching plot about a man reconnecting with himself and his family. WolfCop had potential to make Lou Garou immensely sympathetic as the centre of a small-town’s twisted history, but he seems to be absent from his own plot-line, and instead pops up every now and again to either be an incompetent cop or to be hulking werewolf.
Overall then, WolfCop’s not quite the rip-roaring, Friday-night, six-pack-and-snacks film it could have been, but it’s not a horrible failure either, and worth checking out if you like a bit of silliness. Here’s hoping WolfCop II achieves the potential that this first try doesn’t quite manage.
Wolfcop is released to UK Blu-ray and DVD on 13th October, from Studiocanal.