Frightfest 2014: ‘WolfCop’ Review
Stars: Leo Fafard, Amy Matysio, Jonathan Cherry, Sarah Lind, Aidan Devine | Written by Lowell Dean, Bannister Bergen | Directed by Lowell Dean
I remember seeing the bright neon 80’s style action-movie poster for WolfCop a few months ago and I immediately, without knowing any details, wanted to see the film, and I finally had the opportunity recently for this Frightfest review.
Lowell Dean (13 Eerie) writes and directs what I can only really refer to as a “Canadian werewolf comedy action horror film”, yeah, one of those now exists.
Now, immediately this felt like a television production, and that’s not me putting this down, but the opening credits, the style in which the film is shot, and the fast-paced comedic tone felt like a modern television comedy horror show. Within the first two minutes we’ve had boobs, beer, blood and graffiti, and the fun has only just begun.
Leo Fafard plays our WolfCop in question, an alcoholic womaniser named Lou who works for the police department, obviously. While out on assignment, Lou, drunk and stumbling, wanders into forest-land (why wouldn’t he?) and suddenly he waked up in his apartment, but it’s not all fine and dandy, something happened to him in the woods, and he finds out when he shaves and sees his hair growing back instantly. Dogs like him, he has improved senses and he turns into a werewolf with a loyalty to the law. He is the law, the howling law in the shape of a freaking wolf cop.
Fafard is okay as Lou, his acting isn’t great, but then again this isn’t Citizen Kane, this is WolfCop, so mediocre-acting is to be expected, and it kind of works with the tone of the film anyway. The jokes fall on their proverbial arses from time to time and sadly the comedy, at times, feels like it needs to randomly add farting sound effects to scenes in which the dialogue alone would have sufficed. It makes it feel amateur and a little bit sillier than it should, but the comedy usually works, and the tongue-in-cheek nature of the film is enjoyable, though I can’t help but wonder if this would have been funnier had it been played totally straight and seriously, like action horror of days gone by, and the poster and concept of this film was going to be hard to live up to, but it is a fun flick that does what it sets out to do.
The other characters are okay, but no one really stands out, though I did personally enjoy Jonathan Cherry (Goon) as Willie, the gun-store owner. Amy Matysio (Stranded) as Tina, is pretty horrendous though, her dialogue is spoken like she is reading it through the bottom end of a jam jar. The villains are over-the-top hooligans or crooked douche-bags, so we want to see them defeated and mistreated by our hairy enforcer.
The effects are well done usually, and the gore is fine, and there are scenes that will make you raise an eyebrow, such as the initial transformation scene in which we see a first-hand view of what a drunk cop’s penis might do during his change into his werewolf form. Yeah, I said that. Did you ever feel like the thing that was missing from your life was seeing a sex scene involving a pretty girl and a caged werewolf? Well, then you will be pleased. This is sure to gain a cult following, and it is enjoyable. It is, however, one of those films that is designed to be bad, like Sharknado it is created with the intention of being labelled as “so bad its good” which kind of, in my view, negated the point of that whole ideal. Still, I had fun with WolfCop for what it was, and I imagine others will too.
