Werewolf Week: Wolfcop Review

Confession time: although the title of this feature is 'Werewolf Week', it's probably going to be hanging around the front page for a little longer than seven days, eventually becoming a sort of 'Best and Worst Werewolf Movies' type of deal. This Halloween, you see, I rediscovered the joy of the werewolf flick after stumbling across Ginger Snaps on Netflix. After reacquainting myself with this old favourite, I went on a bit of a werewolf bender, watching every werewolf movie I could lay my paws on in the run up to All Hallow's Eve.

I thought my obsession with shapeshifters would disappear along with the Halloween decorations, but long after the last plastic pumpkin had been put away I found myself scouring IMDB and various horror blogs for any werewolf films I might have missed. As it turns out, there's quite a few of them out there, ranging from the good to the bad to the howlingly awful. This feature takes a closer look at the cinematic legacy of the werewolf, separating the alphas dogs from the runts of the litter. Initially, at least, I'm going to avoid the big hitters like The Howling and An American Werewolf in London, and focus some of the sub-genre's less well known entries.

First up...

Wolfcop (2014)

The best thing about Wolfcop, hands down, is the poster.  I mean, just look at that thing, it's like a paean to the great horror B-movies of the eighties. One look at that lurid one-sheet, and you know you're in for a gloriously goofy time. Sadly, Wolfcop isn't that movie; it's a muddled, poorly paced piece of filmmaking, one that frustratingly fails to deliver on what could have been a great concept.

Wolfcop is a film that feels like it was made with the best of intentions; those intentions being to create a quirky, eighties-style horror comedy that wouldn’t look out of place among cult classics such as Return of the Living Dead and Night of the Comet. Sadly, the end result is too uneven, working as neither a horror film nor a comedy. There are moments in which the film shines - a insalubrious transformation sequence, being chief amongst them - but, by and large, Wolfcop feels like a major missed opportunity.

Watching this low-budget creature feature, it’s hard to shake the feeling that there is a good film in here somewhere. Sadly, it’s buried under a leaden script, wooden acting and characters so ill-defined they barely rate as caricatures. The main problem is one of pacing: all the media leading up to the film's release gave the impression that this was going to be an out of control, lurid tale of law, order and lycanthropy. In reality, the film is surprisingly dry, limping through the first 50-minutes or so before things begin to get interesting. Once the fur does finally start to fly, Wolfcop does pick up steam, sadly, though, the damage has already been done and the film never quite recovers.

In the end, Wolfcop is a strange beast: a comedy horror film that aims for the moon but barely makes it off the launchpad. Still, despite all my misgivings, I’d like to see Wolfcop ride again; a tighter sequel, unburdened by having to tell the story how our cop came to be a lupine defender of law and order, could work. As for this film, I’d put it near the bottom of the werewolf pile, recommending it only to full-moon freaks who have already exhausted the best the genre has to offer.