By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

Lon Chaney, Jr. cannot be very happy.
The Wolfman became his signature role and it always was one of the best of the “bad guys” during Universal’s monster era which also included Frankenstein and Dracula.

Benicio Del Toro plays the tortured Lawrence Talbot, the Lon Chaney role, and certainly looks the part.

But there is so much wrong here, and Joe Johnston’s (Hildalgo, Jurrasic Park III) direction veers so much off track, it is hard to take this remake seriously, at least for very long.

The time is England 1891 and the place the moors of Scotland. And Talbot, who left home at an early age, has come home because his brother has been killed. Yes, his brother went for a walk in the moors during one of those full moons and it ended with predictable results.

Back at Talbot Manor, his estranged father (Anthony Hopkins) is grieving the loss of his son, as is his brother’s fiancee (played by Emily Blunt.)

The Wolfman is still intriguing at this point. Brother Lawrence is investigating his brother’s death. There is a suspicious gypsy camp near the village and the gypsies may know something. Before he can do too much investigating though, the moon rises and gypsies and villagers alike are slaughtered.

There is even a reprisal of that old gypsy woman role (originally played by Maria Ouspenskaya, for those in the know.) Here, a few secrets are shared with Talbot by Geraldine Chaplin in the gypsy role.

A lot of slaughtering goes on during The Wolfman. This new version of the horror icon without a doubt has the largest body count of any other Wolfman film. But that doesn’t make the movie particularly scary. There are a few jolts early on, but what should be frightening soon becomes predictable

There are large stretches of The Wolfman that are doomed with dull and uninspired dialogue. The Wolfman was plagued early on with production problems, including a delay in its release and change of director. Sadly, in this case, all those early problems apparently have taken a toll.

There is more good set design when Talbot, who by now is suspected, at the very least, being out of his mind, is sent to a sanitarium in London. But, there is another full moon above, and he kills a lot of the doctors who have been performing all sorts of cruel tests on him. After he snarls his way through the sanitarium, he escapes to do more carnage on the streets of London. And, no there is no Warren Zevon song played here, but Del Toro’s hair is, at times, perfect.

Eventually, Talbot goes back to the manor. And his brother’s fiancee, of course, is now in love with him.

It sets the stage for the final, and regrettably, laughable climax: it’s Wolfman vs. Wolfman. Yes, there is more than one. They growl, they huff and puff and throw each other against the walls like some out of control sumo wrestlers. Cinema hasn’t seen anything quite like this since King Kong battled Godzilla. And that was a bit more believable.

And there is still time for one more final scene and one more glimpse at the moon and the possibility of a sequel.

Critic's rating: D

The Wolfman is rated R