House of the Wolf Man (2009)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
In case the title doesn't give it away, this homage was meant to complete the "House" trilogy with the first two films being HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF Dracula. The filmmakers did their best to try and make this fit in with those Universal films of the 40s and this includes shooting this film in the 4x3 aspect ratio, in Mono and in B&W. We even get Lon Chaney, Jr.'s son Ron playing the mad doctor. Fans of the classic monsters will certainly have to tip their hat to the filmmakers but in the end the idea was certainly a lot better than the final product.
The story is pretty simple as Dr. Frankenstein (Chaney) invites five people to stay at his creepy mansion for what the people think is a contest. It turns out that Frankenstein, going under a different name, plans on bringing the monsters back to life. There was a lot of hype going into this film as the filmmakers were promising another monster mash like we hadn't seen since those glorious Universal days. The monsters do eventually get into a bash but sadly you have to wait for over sixty-minutes to get to the action. I don't fault any movie for keeping the good stuff until the end but at the same time you have to get everything leading up to it right and HOUSE OF THE WOLF MAN doesn't do that. The first hour is full of annoying characters doing annoying things that no one watching will care about. They fight about the reasons they're at the house. They fight about those mysterious paintings in their rooms. They fight about this and that and this and that and not a single thing is interesting. Even the weakest Universal film at least gave us some sort of monster, mystery or murder but that doesn't happen here. The entire first hour is nothing but these characters barking at one another and one can't help but get bored of it very quickly. The screenplay could have benefited from a re-write because we're left with characters you can't care for and have no reason to be interested in. The performances are for the most part on the decent level but some seem to be playing the characters as if they're some sort of spoof. The sister role is incredibly over the top and the vamp portion doesn't work at all. Chaney certainly isn't as great as his father or grandfather but how could he be, really? When the monsters finally appear they do bring a mild smile but that's about it as the film has simply lost everything up to this point. I'd recommend most people just watch the final fifteen-minutes as a short as this is where most people will be most interested. The wolf man and Frankenstein's monster make-up effects were pretty good and I enjoyed the look of both. They don't try to get the wolf man to look like Chaney, Jr., which I didn't mind and the monster had a few resemblances to the one in Al Adamson's Dracula VS. FRANKENSTEIN. Again, I appreciate what the filmmakers were going for but if you're going to sell a monster bash then you need to deliver something more than bland characters and dialogue hacking away for over an hour. HOUSE OF THE WOLF MAN has a couple good touches and its heart is in the right place but you can't help but see it as a wasted opportunity.
