Easily the best thing about WolfCop is its use of practical makeup effects. In an age where almost everything we see on screen is created on a computer, it is downright refreshing to see real, physical craftsmanship on display. Unfortunately, there just isn’t a whole lot more to it than that. The film is lacking in almost every other department, with a story that’s perfunctory at best, and lackluster direction that turns much of the film into a patience-testing slog.
Lou Garou (Leo Fafard) is an alcoholic police deputy who we first meet waking up in a stupor following a drunken hookup. He isn’t really able to work up much enthusiasm for his job, and spends most of his working hours just hanging out in a bar. But he is forced into investigating some disturbances in the woods. There, a ritual is performed against his will, and he becomes cursed. At the full moon, he transforms into a werewolf. But this turns out to be not such a bad thing. He uses his newfound strength and abilities to fight crime and discover the strange truth behind the town he lives in.
Clearly, this film isn’t meant to be taken seriously. But given that, the film just doesn’t put enough work into putting together a compelling story. The narrative is weirdly overcomplicated, the story building to silly twists that are difficult to care about. This could have just been about a bad cop who becomes good by becoming a werewolf. But instead, it turns out that the movie is about a clunky conspiracy that involves a plan that makes absolutely no sense in the end. Movies like this can be made memorable on the back of a strong villain. Conversely, dumb, illogical villains usually make the film unbearable. This is the case here.
And while the makeup effects are good, the rest of the production just doesn’t pass muster. The film’s central conspiracy ends up calling for a lot of expository dialogue, and the film fails to make any of that interesting. The film’s sense of humor is hampered by the poor editing, which really gets in the way of the timing of these fairly simple jokes. The filmmaking only gets good when things start to get violent, the filmmakers showing a gusto that just isn’t present in those other scenes.
Leo Fafard is fun enough in the lead role. The actor revels in the B-movie wheelhouse of the film, delivering a performance that certainly wouldn’t be out of place in a classic 80s gorefest. It’s a bit cheesy without being outright bad, which is exactly what you want. The rest of cast offers the same approach with varying degrees of success. Amy Matysio falls more on the bad side of the scale. Jonathan Cherry never really seems to get much of a handle on his character. Sarah Lind really gets into the role, and matches Fafard well in their scenes together.
There are two version of WolfCop arriving in our theaters: one that is R16 and another that is R18. If one must see this film, then it should go without saying that one should seek out the R18 version. A sanitized version of this movie is completely pointless. Not that there is much point to an untouched version either. Apart from the makeup effects, it does feel as though the movie is just going through the motions of an obsolete genre of film. The transformation sequence is genuinely great, but that alone doesn’t give us a complete film.
My Rating:
