"Wolf Man" Redo Concept Art

Monster movies have sort of become the all-time butt of jokes in the cineplexes because so many are essentially just masses of camp and bad effects covered in buckets of blood. But they've stuck around - albeit in more accessible and modern forms like the slashers with Jason and Freddy living out the "Creature from the Black Lagoon"'s dreams of butchering the helpless semi-nude woman, and sci-fi stuff like "Alien" and the "Terminator" which is essentially a reiteration of the themes first introduced in "Frankenstein" - because they're fun to return to so we can smirk at their laffable visual effects and makeup, but also because these films very visually capture the norms of society at a given time. They refashion our deepest fears and anxieties and condense them into often times hideous physical manifestations. Like the fears we harbor over our own powers to create which is at the heart of both Frankenstein and Terminator. Or our feral, violent and primitive (not to mention sexually-driven) tendencies, which commands the Wolf Man who sits lodged between the human and animal divisions, between instinct and intellect, restraint and absolute frenzy.


As much as I am still slightly bummed that Mark Romanek dropped out of the project, I am also just as excited about how "The Wolf Man" remake at Universal is panning out with Joe Johnson at the helm, and these new concept art shots by Academy Award-winning special effects makeup artist Rick Baker certainly help. I, for one, am glad that they're doing quite a bit with practical effects and makeup instead of jumping straight to digital stuff because that can be really distracting (see "Van Helsing" for an example of how distracting) and because they tend to render the whole look really bland. But there's great detail here, with lead Benicio Del Toro's likeness actually being articulated well, and a good amount of attention paid to how the transformation will look and play out. Should be really terrifying stuff. As talented as she is anyways, supporting damsel Emily Blunt need not worry about having to feign shock and horror. Rick Baker has got you covered. Should re-enliven an entire archive's worth of monster-female chase sequences in wooded areas.

And it might take a couple decades before we can come back to this flick and snicker over the visuals, they look so good.

IMAGE from: Slashfilm, and Z Brush Central
SCOOPED first by: Shock