A brash Manhattan industrialist, his coke-bingeing wife and a slum wino have something in common: they’re the latest victims in a series of seemingly motiveless murders. A city cop is assigned to solved 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. This is the plot for the 1981 movie Wolfen starring Albert Finney, Diane Venora, James Edward Olmos and Gregory Hines.At first we see a building being demolished and we see a development team breaking new ground. Next is a long (extremely long – too long) shoot of a limo driving through the city. The man, industrialist Van der Veer, is drinking champagne while his wife snorts coke. As they pass a bridge, a rock is thrown at the limo but the driver doesn’t stop.
When the limo reaches the park, the couple exits the limo and takes a leisurely stroll around the park. In the distant, there is a sense that something is stalking them although the couple doesn’t sense it. As the couple continues to walk around the park, the stalker focuses on the driver who is standing by himself. When he finally senses danger, he pulls a gun from his jacket, points it and we see his severed hand fly through the air still grasping the gun. The stalker then turns their attention on the man and woman – killing each of them.
It’s morning when we see another man running through a different park. He finishes his job andstops in the corner store for several items. His pager goes off and he heads for the closest pay phone to return the call. This is detective Dewey Wilson and as he listens, he is informed of the grizzly murders. He heads to the crime scene and after talking with those on the scene, he finds a small pearl lying on the ground near the scene of the crime. Later at the morgue, he’s told by Whittington that they cannot determine what killed the couple, but the police have picked up the Van der Veer’s niece since she’s a known industrialist terrorist – this proves to be a dead end.
Switching scenery, we see a wino trading some jewelry for a couple of pills. He stumbles away and into a crumbled building. As he is looking into a dark section of the building, he’s attacked and killed and the body is slowly pulled into the darkness.
Dewey Wilson is at the deceased couple’s home when he get another call about a body in the South Bronx and the corner, Whittington, tells hims that hair found on the Van der Veer’s and the body found in the South Bronx were identical – not human.
Dewey Wilson and his partner Rebecca Neff ( assigned to the case) go to the Bronx to look for clues and as they walk by a crumbled church, they hear a baby’s cry but don’t find a baby. Rebecca goes upstairs to investigate further while Dewey stays outside but sensing danger, he races after Rebecca and pulls her out of the building before she’s attacked. At night, the wolf awakens and begins to track down the two detectives.
The next day, Dewey visits the zoo to enlisted the help of one of the zoo keepers. The zoo keeper tells him that his killer is a carnivore but denies that it could be a wolf since wolves don’t usually attack humans and that the Indians and wolves have developed a special relationship over time. Hearing the connection the zoo keeper made about Indians, Dewey goes to see Eddie Holt, an Indian who he has had past dealing with. Eddie works the high steel and Dewey has to make the track up a high bridge to talk with Eddie who mocks him, and later that night performs a ritual to turn himself into a wolf (not literally.)
The zoo keeper has done some of his own investigating and after making a fake call to the fire department, he goes in search of wolves. After finding his “prize”, the zoo keeper realizes that it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do and tries to flee but the wolves have different feelings about that and strike him dead.
Meanwhile Dewey is still on the hunt for his murder suspect and once again feels his partner’s life is in danger. He races to her apartment but there is nothing dangerous around, so instead the two end up sharing an intimate moment – okay they sleep together. He slips away in the early morning hours and discovers that the zoo keeper hasn’t been heard from.
Dewey and Whittington set up surveillance across from the crumbled church building trying to catch the suspect off-guard but instead the two are the ones caught off guard and Whittington is killed by the wolves. Distraught over Whittington’s death, Dewey seeks out Eddie Holt at a local Indian bar.
“It’s not wolves,” Eddie tells Dewey. “It’s Wolfen. For 20,000 years Wilson – ten times your fucking Christian era – the skins and wolves, the great hunting nations, lived together, the nature in balance. Then the slaughter came.”
Dewey realizes why the Wolfen are attacking people while at the Van der Veer’s resident. The chief of police and Rebecca show up and try to convince him they have the killer in custody – it was terrorists. As the three leaving the building, the Wolfen appear, surrounding them. The chief of police pulls his gun and they attack and kill him. The other two race inside the building but the wolves burst through the window. The groups is embroiled in a Mexican stand off until Dewey realizes they can’t win. He lowers his gun in surrender. The wolves accept this and left without further incident
“In arrogance man knows nothing of what exits. There exists on this earth such as we dare not imagine; life as certain as our death, life that will prey on us as surely as we prey on this earth.”
Roll credits
I give Wolfen 2.5 out of 5 stars. I liked the concept of this movie but it is not a horror story. It’s not even a suspenseful story. This is a crime drama so I’m not sure why or how it was classified as a horror movie – except it supposedly has Wolfen (not anything more than wolves with supernatural powers) scatter throughout the story. This movie’s plot and storyline moved at a snail’s pace and I found myself extreme bored. This movie is 1 hour and 55 minutes in lengthen and the action doesn’t happen until the last twenty minutes, so for over an hour and a half, I was banging my head on the back of the couch to keep from going to sleep. If you like crime dramas or even dramas, then Wolfen may be up your alley, but as for us horror fans, this one fizzles.
One Comment