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 "Shutter Island" |
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 Inalienable |
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 Tokyo Bay Japanese Restaurant Review |
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 Lunchbox .... They Write The Songs .... Passing On .... .... .... .... .... .... Mike's Record Shelf
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Assistant Editor / Co-moderator: Terence Nuzum
Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our eleventh calendar year!
Number 517 (Vol. 11, No. 8). This edition is for the week of February 15--21, 2010.
Cursed Anyone who has ever visited this website knows how much space we've devoted to Creature Feature and its ghost Dr. Paul Bearer, the longest-running horror host on television at the time of his death. To summarize in just a few lines our thoughts on this man is impossible, but know he is sorely missed by horror fan afficiandos nation-wide. To Central Florida fans, he was one of our own. He lived in Winter Haven, but worked out of St. Petersburg (aka, St. Creaturesburg!) at WTOG Channel 44. I myself rarely missed an episode until the day he died.
My esteemed colleagues who helped me build CrazedFanboy.com spearheaded a groundbreaking effort to establish a memorial to this gifted performer, including a comprehensive episode guide (an ongoing project). ED Tucker's Monster Memories and Lost Interview with Bennick continues to draw more email than anything else on this site. It's obvious Dr. Paul Bearer touched countless lives. We enjoy corresponding with other fans and making available copies of 20-year-old episodes of Creature Feature for fan collectors. It is one important way we can continue to share in his memory.
I had the honor of meeting Dick Bennick (in character as Dr. Paul Bearer) on only one occasion, the 1991 Necronomicon where he arrived as a guest (in the company of the aforementioned Mr. Tucker). See my younger, clean-faced self with Dr. Paul here.
I have always been very proud and grateful to discover that when entering "Dick Bennick" or "Dr. Paul Bearer" into a search engine, some link from this website is always on the first page, if not at the very top. Hopefully, we can continue to serve fandom remembering Dr. Paul Bearer for many years to come.
(Addendeum, post facto: tip-of-the-hat to Brandon Jones and others who reminded me of this important anniversary.)
This past Sunday, fellow PCR staffers Terence Nuzum, Chris Woods, and Ye Olde Editor took in a late afternoon showing of The Wolfman, a remake (essentially) of the 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. classic, this one starring Benecio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, and directed by Joe Johnston.
This film was previously reviewed by our own Mike Smith in last week's movie review column, where Mike gave it our highest rating of Four Stars. While none of us who went Sunday would rate it Four Stars, we definitely agreed it deserved a solid Three.
For specific plot details, please refer to Mike's column or just take my word for it that it follows pretty closely the plot of the 1941 film with a few significant differences. Without disclosing plot spoilers, I'll tell you that the time period is different in the remake (late 1890s vs contemporary settings) and the involvement of Larry Talbot's father, John, is profoundly different (you'll have to see the movie for that one).
Setting it in the 19th century certainly paves the way for a moodier, more romantic and mystical ambience. The sets are great and very atmospheric. To my eyes, the photography was conspicuously biased toward very muted colors, giving the film a desaturated, nearly black & white look, except for the flesh tones and, well, some blood and gore. I'm guessing the muted colors are to augment the suggestion of an old time frame.
The casting is great with one notable exception (I'll get to that in a second). Benecio Del Toro, in some angles, actually resembles Lon Chaney, Jr.! His depth and pathos are well-conveyed. Anthony Hopkins is great in everything he does and this film is no exception. As Sir John Talbot, he protects his son, yet seems to anger the younger Talbot equally as often (in the original, John Talbot was played by Claude Rains, another heavyweight). The expanded role of the Inspector from Scotland Yard, played well by Hugo Weaving, is referred to as having investigated the "Ripper Murders" which helps sell the time frame. The one notable exception in casting I referred to earlier is the rather pivotal role of the old gypsy woman, Meleva. In the 1941 original, she is played by the legendary Maria Ouspenskaya and conveyed a heartrending authenticity. In the remake, the role went to Geraldine Chaplin, who I'm sure is a very nice lady, but her appearances in this are what I'd call, at best, pedestrian. Sorry.
Rick Baker's make-up effects are as amazing as would be expected by the man who pioneered wolfman metamorphases in films such as An American Werewolf in London and Wolf. The metamorphasis in The Wolfman is familiar along those lines, but strangely, somewhat restrained in spectacle. (According to Baker's interview in the current Make-Up Artist magazine, there might be some politics to that, mainly a feeling that a great, drawn-out morph scene was, for some reason, not deemed a priority from the production). There are some CGI effects in distant shots, like Talbot running along rooftops, but they're very acceptable in light of how organic the rest of the film seems otherwise.
Much has been said about the "blood and gore" effects. To that I would say that, yes, there is that in there and it is tastefully used (you really can't have a bloodless monster attack anymore can you?), but nothing so extreme as to suggest a "slasher" flick which would've cheapened it. Interestingly, Baker cameos as one of the first gypsy men to get killed.
The editor in me can't resist pointing out one more difference between the 1941 and 2010 films. In 1941, the creature was The Wolf Man, two words. Currently, he's The Wolfman, one word. I keep thinking it's to make it a more familiar concept to audiences along the lines of Superman and Batman, to have it as one word (not Spider-Man, however, which is trademarked as two words, hyphenated. OK, maybe I'm over-thinking it).
Surprisingly, The Wolfman opening didn't take the number one spot at the box office, that honor went to Valentine's Day. Despite both movies opening on Valentine's Day weekend, I really didn't see that coming, a "date" movie trumping a classic horror flick. I'm also shocked that the sappy, one-star tearjerker Dear John is still in the top five, but hey, these are the times we live in. I digress...
The Wolfman is highly recommended and, on a scale of zero-to-four, I give it Three Stars.
Dr. Paul Bearer and Me
The Wolfman
Readers' Comments
DR. PAUL BEARER AND ME
POSTED BY NOLAN B. CANOVA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2010
As I write these words, Thursday, February 18th, our friend and hero, Dick Bennick, aka, Dr. Paul Bearer, has been dead exactly 15 years. He was 66. It was, in ways too complicated to explain to a very young person today, the end of an era.
As submitted by PCR writers, compiled by Chris Woods
THE WIZARD OF GORE VISITS TAMPA
From 2008, The PCR staff meets the legendary Godfathers of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman.
THE WOLFMAN
POSTED BY NOLAN B. CANOVA, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2010
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