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As a lifelong fan of the original 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. version of "The Wolf Man", I naturally had mixed feelings about the 2010 remake, starring Benicio Del Toro. Of course the most important thing to me, was for the filmmakers to just please, please, please - get the character of the Wolf Man himself right - which they certainly did. So I applauded the remake for that, from the first viewing. But I also nit-picked everything else about it to death. Every deviation from the original story (and there were some major ones) felt like a grave error to me. I guess that's just what us movie fans do when one of our old favorites gets re-made in a modern version.

I should know better. I've read plenty of accounts of 1960's horror fans who were up in arms about the remake of Dracula staring some new guy named Christopher Lee. And yet today, most of us 21st Century horror fans hold the Christopher Lee version of Dracula in the same high regard as the classic Bela Lugosi version. I think the lesson is, movie remakes are a shock to the system for the fan who has spent years in love with the original version. A lot of time must pass before we can judge a remake fairly.

Well, the Wolf Man character himself was treated so well in the 2010 remake that I kept going back for repeated viewings, just to see him in action, again and again, despite the film's other shortcomings. But with these repeat viewings I have found more and more to like about the 2010 Wolf Man. What can I tell ya - this movie has grown on me a lot. I've forgiven most of its changes to the original story and come to accept it as its own thing. And it has slowly become one of my favorite new horror movies from the past decade.

No, it is not a perfect film by any stretch, but it treated my old friend the Wolf Man with respect and didn't make a joke out of him. In fact it made him very cool and let him kill a lot of people with plenty of blood and gore - and reminded the world what a good old fashioned werewolf is capable of. And for that I love it.

There's a scene in the movie where Larry Talbot is in an insane asylum. He goes crazy and experiences a weird montage of hallucinatory images, one of which is a 3-second, "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" shot of his friend Gwen sitting naked on a bed. I have always been a sucker for stories about Monsters longing for the beautiful girl they can never have. So I decided to do an illustration of that striking moment, but with the Wolf Man clutching hold of her - as if Larry had injected himself into his own dream of Gwen. So sad...

Anyway there ya go.

Description
As a lifelong fan of the original 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. version of "The Wolf Man", I naturally had mixed feelings about the 2010 remake, starring Benicio Del Toro. Of course the most important thing to me, was for the filmmakers to just please, please, please - get the character of the Wolf Man himself right - which they certainly did. So I applauded the remake for that, from the first viewing. But I also nit-picked everything else about it to death. Every deviation from the original story (and there were some major ones) felt like a grave error to me. I guess that's just what us movie fans do when one of our old favorites gets re-made in a modern version.

I should know better. I've read plenty of accounts of 1960's horror fans who were up in arms about the remake of Dracula staring some new guy named Christopher Lee. And yet today, most of us 21st Century horror fans hold the Christopher Lee version of Dracula in the same high regard as the classic Bela Lugosi version. I think the lesson is, movie remakes are a shock to the system for the fan who has spent years in love with the original version. A lot of time must pass before we can judge a remake fairly.

Well, the Wolf Man character himself was treated so well in the 2010 remake that I kept going back for repeated viewings, just to see him in action, again and again, despite the film's other shortcomings. But with these repeat viewings I have found more and more to like about the 2010 Wolf Man. What can I tell ya - this movie has grown on me a lot. I've forgiven most of its changes to the original story and come to accept it as its own thing. And it has slowly become one of my favorite new horror movies from the past decade.

No, it is not a perfect film by any stretch, but it treated my old friend the Wolf Man with respect and didn't make a joke out of him. In fact it made him very cool and let him kill a lot of people with plenty of blood and gore - and reminded the world what a good old fashioned werewolf is capable of. And for that I love it.

There's a scene in the movie where Larry Talbot is in an insane asylum. He goes crazy and experiences a weird montage of hallucinatory images, one of which is a 3-second, "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" shot of his friend Gwen sitting naked on a bed. I have always been a sucker for stories about Monsters longing for the beautiful girl they can never have. So I decided to do an illustration of that striking moment, but with the Wolf Man clutching hold of her - as if Larry had injected himself into his own dream of Gwen. So sad...

Anyway there ya go.