Even Forty Years Later, ‘Wolfen’ (1981) Remains A Deep, Complex Werewolf Film – Retro Review

This month, one of my favorite horror films, Michael Wadleigh’s (Woodstock) Wolfen (1981), celebrates its forty year anniversary. Unlike many werewolf films, Wolfen goes beyond the normal hack and slash and chooses instead to delve deep into issues like power, mysticism, and ecological welfare.

Synopsis:

A city cop is assigned to solve a bizarre set of violent murders where it appears that the victims were killed by animals. In his pursuit, he learns of an Indian legend about wolf spirits.

The film stars a gruff, disheveled Albert Finney (The Browning Version), Diane Venora (Heat), Gregory Hines (Running Scared), and an electrifying performance by Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver). After a wealthy real estate developer and his wife are brutally murdered, weary cop Dewey Wilson (Finney) is called out to the case. The murders are extremely brutal, and wolf hairs have been found on the victims. But are wolves capable of that? Finney teams up with reporter Rebecca Neff (Venora) and discovers that the tycoon was planning to redevelop a derelict section of New York City. Their trail leads them to Eddie Holt (Olmos), a Native American who works on skyscrapers. He tells them:

“It’s not wolves. It’s Wolfen. For 20,000 years, Wilson—ten times your fucking Christian era—the ‘skins and wolves, the great hunting nations, lived together. Nature in balance. Then the slaughter came. The smartest ones, they went underground into a new wilderness. Your cities. You have your technology, but you lost. You lost your senses.”

Wolfen is less a “werewolf” movie and more a revenge movie. The Wolfen, living in a burnt out shell of the outer reaches of the city, are attacking to savagely defend their territory. But as Finney navigates this world where civilized men are blinded by greed, he begins to slowly understand, at last, who the real savages are.

While the special effects may seem dated now, the thrilling point of view ‘wolf vision’ is still as mesmerizing now as it was then. This technique is used to show the intelligence of the Wolfen instead of having a physical transformation from a wolf. The kills are still great, and the use of sound is fantastic. What is most effective, however, are the beautiful stark visuals depicting the sprawling margins of the city.

Underlying Wolfen is an angry theme of human greed, its ecological impact on the earth, and how nature will rise up to try and correct the balance. This complex subtext will always make it one of the most fascinating horror films of its genre.