Looks like Christmas has come early for all us hardened horror heads, as we’ve just gotten word that Joe Johnston’s re-appropriation of THE WOLFMAN will indeed be rated R for bloody horror, violence, and gore. And you thought you weren’t getting shite under the tree this year!
Seriously, this could not make us happier. To see modern day horror sway and pander to the lowest common denominator (TEENS) just to reach widest possible audiences, thereby making watered-down PG-13 horror films as a result is a f*ckin’ travesty. Of course THE WOLFMAN should be rated R. I know it. You know it. Let’s just be thankful Universal knew it too!
Now enough of my jaded film purist rant. Let’s revisit the plotline of Johnston’s flick, shall we:
Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman, is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother… and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate.
Benicio Del Toro plays the title role alongside Sir Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt (below), Hugo Weaving, Geraldine Chaplin, Art Malik, Kiran Shah, Elizabeth Croft and Sam Hazeldine.
THE WOLFMAN surfaces Feb. 12, 2010.