Wolf (1994)

1994

Directed by Mike Nichols
Starring Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan and Christopher Plummer

Looking back, the '90s weird a very strange time for horror movies.  The slasher boom of the '80s had gradually given way to the Nothing from The Never-Ending Story, meaning that we were in for a lot of flicks that essentially had no clue what they were trying to be.  Not on a macro scale, anyway.  Some of them were paying tribute to older stuff.  Some of them were still trying to milk the slasher craze.  And then there was the mini-trend of big budget, big deal, big cast movies that started with Bram Stoker's Dracula and continued well into the middle of the decade.  I don't know if they were all specifically trying to rip off the template from Stanley Kubrick, but none of them quite got there.  Not that they didn't try.

Which leads me to Wolf.  Released in 1994, this film was expected to be a big deal.  It had a MASSIVE budget of $70 million, which has to be some kind of record for the time period when it comes to horror movies.  It did modestly well in theaters, but it wasn't QUITE the mammoth hit that it was expected to be.  I didn't know any of that back then, because this movie was definitely a big deal with me.  Folks, Michelle Pfeiffer might have been my very first boner ever.  That alone on the ad was enough to sell 11-year-old me on the proposition, so when this baby hit HBO, I was there.  A horror movie with Catwoman, the Joker and that douchy guy from a bunch of '80s flicks?  Are you kidding me?  Loved me some Wolf back in the day!  So, does it hold up?  The answer is...kinda. 

I never thought of this back when I was an idiot kid watching this movie, but one thing that kind of amazes me now as a grumpy adult is how many movies and TV shows have main characters who are book editors.  Maybe it's a symptom of where a lot of these films are written, but still...book editors.  I couldn't even tell you what these guys DO, and I've watched something like 2,000 hours of entertainment footage depicting their lives!  Well, in this movie, we get Jack Nicholson.  Full-on 1994 Cool Guy Jack Nicholson, no less, and he's playing...Cool Guy Book Editor Will Randall.  Yup, he exists, but it's Nicholson, so you know it's good.  The character is actually pretty likable despite me not knowing what he does for eight hours a day, and in this movie, he's got a young mentor played by James Spader.  Only Spader isn't really a grateful mentor, as he plays dirty in the early goings of this movie to pass Will over for a promotion.  Derp.

The movie shows us a lot of the trials and tribulations of Mr. Randall in the early goings.  In addition to his tumultuous relationship with Spader (and I refuse to call him anything else), there's also a tumultuous relationship with his tumultuous wife Charlotte (Kate Nelligan).  Will secretly suspects that Spader is banging her, and eventually he is able to catch the two of them in the after-stages of fucking.  I know that sentence might not make much sense, but believe me, it's portrayed strongly.  Wait, isn't this supposed to be a wolf movie?  Oh yeah - Will was also bitten by a wolf while out on a drive at the beginning of the film, and after discovering Spader and his wife's secrets, he starts to grow the familiar gnarled fangs.  Yikes.

Wait, isn't Michelle Pfeiffer supposed to be in this movie?  Yes, and that's the next stop on the plot train.  With his life effectively in shambles, Will goes traipsing away to the countryside estate of Laura Alden (Pfeiffer), the daughter of his boss (played by the always awesome Christopher Plummer - this movie really did have some cast).  For what it's worth, the love story here is actually done pretty well.  When you've got performers as good as these two, you can pull off pretty much anything, but the material isn't too weak.  Laura is written as a sensitive, nurturing person, just the type of soul that Will is in need of. Looking like Michelle Pfeiffer doesn't hurt either.

The setting also gives us a nice backdrop for some wolf action, as Will kills wild animals and bites the fingers off would-be muggers while out and about in full canine mode.  I also need to mention that MOLA RAM HIMSELF makes a surprise appearance as a local mystic who gives Will an amulet meant to keep him from transforming.  Yeah.  Goddamn Mola Ram.  Can't say I saw that one coming.  But the movie's real meat takes place back in the big city as Will begins taking back his life from Spader.  By the end of the story, a few people are dead, several more people are bitten, and we've witnessed an office scene consisting of Jack Nicholson pissing on James Spader's shoes.  Yes, folks, this actually happens.  Everything eventually leads up to an ending that I've always found slightly confusing, but from what I've read it seems to be exclusively me who feels this way.  Probably just a case of my ever-present glandular condition.

Watching this movie again after all these years, the first thing that jumped out at me is that the tone of this film is just all over the place.  You can definitely tell that this script went through something like four bazillion rewrites as it made its way through the big-budget Hollywood system.  Sometimes, it's trying to be scary.  Sometimes, it's trying to be funny.  Sometimes, it's trying to be darkly satirical.  I get the feeling that the latter is the one that the original screenwriter was going for, and ironically, I think it's those bits that are the least interesting.  As such, it's really hard to sink your teeth into this story (horrible unintentional pun alert).

That's not to say that the movie is bad, though.  Acting wise, it should be pretty obvious that this film is top notch.  Nicholson, Pfeiffer and Spader were all at the top of their game, and the scenes between Nicholson and Pfeiffer definitely didn't disappoint.  I've always loved the "curse-and-redemption" storyline done in monster movies, and it's still pretty emotional here.  Those bits, though, are brief.  And one would think that a movie with as much money to spend as this one would have some pretty impressive wolf makeup, but whenever Nicholson has to get wolf-ized...LOL.  That's all I'll say about that one.

Time for a rating.  This one gets ** 1/2 out of ****.  It's still one of the sentimental favorites of my youth, but this flick is kind of a textbook example of a movie not knowing what it's going for.  Check it out for the performances, but as a scary movie, it's lacking.