'Curse of the Werewolf' review by MartialHorror
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THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF(1961)
(Directed by Terence Fisher)
"Oh being cursed as a werewolf isn't THAT bad."- Signed by MartialHorror
Plot: A man, cursed with the ability to turn into a werewolf when evil thoughts plague his head, especially around the full moon, suffers from his problems and eventually turns into a murderous monster. Can he stop himself?
Review:
“The Curse of the Werewolf” is the only major Hammer remake that didn’t spawn a series of films. Watching it, it is easy to see why, even if you are a fan of the film. It is an interesting movie, but more based on the directors ambitions than the movie itself. Watching this along with “The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll”, tells me one important thing about the director: He didn’t really want to be a horror director, at least exclusively. Obviously, horror was what he was good at, and the studio would never let him do anything else. The result was that he would use his ambitions and take horror titles and premises, and turn them into dramas. The result was that people were pissed. They didn’t want to see their old horror classics turned into melodramas. So at the time, most of these films flopped, forcing Fisher to go back to doing straight up horror again. As much as we wish to indulge Fisher, the truth was that he simply was not very good when it came to drama. He could do dramatic scenes well enough, but not drama. That’s not to say that “The Curse of the Werewolf”, which indeed tries to be a melodrama, is a bad film. I’m really not sure how I feel about it. I enjoyed aspects of it, but not the movie itself. It might be a failure, but it certainly is an interesting failure.
The film opens with a narration by Don Alfredo Corledo(Clifford Evans), and yes, this movie takes place in Spain so you can expect a bunch of Englishmen pretending they aren’t Englishmen. They don’t really succeed, but it never really distracted me either. What is slightly more distracting is that he’s describing things there is no way of him knowing….But I might have an explanation about that. He tells the story of a Beggar(Richard Woodsworth), a slow but kind man who decides to beg to the most detestable Marques(Anthony Dawson) ever. It ends up with the poor beggar being bought and left in a cage to rot. He’s basically left there and grows more beastial. The jailers daughter(Yvonne Romain) sort of befriends him, but that doesn’t stop him from raping her when she’s thrown in the same cage for resisting the advances of the Marques. The Beggar then……dies, I guess, and the poor gal kills the Marques before running away. This ends around 30 minutes into the movie……So will the jailers daughter, who is never named, be the protagonist? No……..
The 2nd act begins with Don Corledo finding her, concluding his narration. She is pregnant six months, and I wonder in a nice bit of subtly if Don Corledo fancied the idea of marrying her. When he finds out she’s pregnant, he gets this “Well screw that” expression on his face. Nevertheless, he lets her stay at his place. She dies giving birth to her son, Leon. Corledo ends up raising him pretty much as his son. As a child, the kid playing Leon has questionable acting skills. But that doesn’t matter as soon dead animals begin showing up. Pepe(Warren Mitchell), the town constable, is charged with finding the ‘wolf’. I began to think that this would be the ultimate plot, as I had forgotten that Oliver Reed was supposed to be here.
Don Corledo quickly deduces that Leon is the killer so decides to get some spiritual help. It is revealed that because Leon was the product of an unmarried union, his soul is weak and a wolf spirit is invading his own spirit. When a full moon is out, where evil is apparently at its peek, Leon can change if he has feelings of evil(lust, greed, hate, etc). But if his feelings are of love, he can be cured of it. I personally dug this little twist. Is it silly? Yes, but it’s fairly unique and has an old wives tale vibe about it. Don Corledo puts bars in his sons room(so he can’t get out), and Pepe ends up shooting a neighborhood dog. Hence, the ‘mystery’ has ended…..I guess that was act 2. It ends around 45 minutes in and it should be noted that all the (animal) deaths have been off-screen so far.
Act 3 begins with Leon turning into a young, handsome Oliver Reed. Yes, THAT Oliver Reed. Leon takes over the story and goes out on his own to work at some wine factory. There, he meets Christina(Catherine Feller), the daughter of his boss. Despite being engaged, Christina falls in love with him…..Actually, I hated this. They have one small conversation that is anything but intimate, and then the next scene they are together they are pretty much making out pretty heavily. The hell? If Terence Fisher had no interest in showing their developing romance, why should we have any interest in watching it? I am left with a few conclusions on this. At first, I thought there was a time jump, but other bits of dialogue suggest that this is all happening within his first week…So that can’t be right. Then I was beginning to think that maybe they were having an affair before he went there, and that’s WHY he went to work there. It makes sense, but they never are very clear on that, and Leon has to ask friend to find out who she is. Or maybe she’s kind of a slut, but I don’t think that’s the intention. About an hour into the movie, Leon FINALLY transforms into a werewolf and starts killing people……And let me say this, while you don’t see the werewolf in itself till the very end…..It looks freaking amazing. Imagine Lon Chaney Jr. from “The Wolf-Man”, except far more scarier and while Chaney Jr. was a big guy, he wasn’t anywhere near as buff as Reed was at this point. Reed, already a big guy, looked ripped. The freaky werewolf makeup added to Reed’s physique makes him one wolf-man that I would not want to face.
Now what I do like about “The Curse of the Werewolf” is its theme on mans inhumanity to man. Now, I’ve seen more retarded attempts to pull this off(The more entertaining but dumb “District 9”), but I appreciated it here. Almost everyone in this movie seems to treat their fellow humans as dogs. No, even worse than dogs. The point is that if you treat people as animals, they can become dangerous like one. I also like the fact that this almost intentionally feels like an old wives tale. It feels embellished and exaggerated(especially with the opening), but that gives it its own kind of charm.
The problem is, as I said, that Fisher is not very good with drama. The main problem is that very little of this film is developed. The first 30 minutes focuses on the beggar and the servant girl. We start caring for them because they’re developing characters(although in one case, it’s not for the better), but then they die. Even though after that we are introduced to our protagonist, Leon, the next 15-20 minutes focuses on Don Corledo. Then, around the 45 minute arc, Leon finally becomes the main character. His development is rushed from his relationships to the other characters(like his love interest), to his own personal growth. The result is the film loses all of its emotional resonance, even though there are plenty of scenes involving Leon crying.
Fisher also could’ve generated more suspense out of its drama. Example, in the end, the Werewolf-Leon looks like he’s going to capture or attack Christina. They build it up just to have more people come and the werewolf runs away. When Don Corledo realizes that he himself will probably have to kill Leon, does he act like he’s about to kill the boy he raised? Does he even act like he’s going to kill a friend? No, he acts like he’s going to put down his rabid dog, and if that was the point, I think Fisher made a mistake.
I will say that the acting is solid. Oliver Reed(Leon) does good, especially in the werewolf make-up. But still……I don’t think he had perfected his craft yet. He’s kind of boring at times….Clifford Evans(Don Corledo) is solid, Catherine Fuller(Christina) does okay and props to Martin Matthews(Jose) on being funny and entertaining in his limited screentime.
In the end, “The Curse of the Werewolf” fails as a horror film…..There is no suspense, there is little atmosphere and none of the frightening imagery that Fisher was known for. On the other hand, it also fails as a melodrama due to its changing the protagonist multiple times. It is dull, yet there is something ingenious here. The werewolf make-up is top notch(take that crappy CGI wolves of today!) and the story it tells is a……Intriguing one. I love aspects of it, but I don’t really like the film overall…..Ugh, this is one of those movies I find difficulty rating. A more recent example of a film with a similar problem is "The Book of Eli", which I like a bit more than this.
Violence: If you watch the unrated version, it can be surprisingly harsh at times. While not gory like todays stuff, I’d say it was Hammer's goriest horror film at the time.
Nudity: None, but there is some sexuality.
Overall: “The Curse of the Werewolf” is interesting due to its successes and failures….I’m torn between giving it a 2/4 stars or a 2.5/4 stars. I’m going with the higher because I think it was better than “The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll”, which I gave the lower rating. You might like it, maybe even love it, but I’d watch it at your own risk. Don’t expect an exciting horror film….Expect something……unique, for better or worse.
2.5/4 Stars
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