True connoisseurs of the Seventh Art are often frustrated with the sad fact that popularity doesn’t equal quality. Many great films failed at the box office, while many bad or mediocre films succeeded. Teen Wolf, 1985 comedy directed by Rod Daniel, is an example of the latter.
Protagonist, played by Michael J. Fox, is Scott Howard, high school student in small Nebraska town. His life revolves mostly around his school basketball team, which is being constantly defeated by rival team, which includes Mick (played by Mark Arnold), jock that tries any opportunity to bully Scott. One of reasons for such bullying is Scott’s, predictably unsuccessful, attempts to starts romantic relationship with Pamela (played by Lorie Griffin), beautiful blonde student who just happens to be Mick’s girlfriend. Things begin to change when Scott begins experiencing strange changes in his body, that includes increased sense of smell, growth of body hair and fangs. Scott soon realises that he is a werewolf, only to be surprised that his own father Harold (played by James Hampton) is werewolf too. After being advised how to deal with this, apparently hereditary, condition Scott initially tries to keep it a secret, but strong emotions force him to go through transformation during a basketball game. In his new state he easily changes his team’s fortunes and becomes school’s most popular pupil, which allows him to win Pamela over. But, as time goes by, he becomes displeased with everyone expecting him to be “cool” werewolf instead of ordinary Scott. The only exception is Boof (played by Susan Ursitti), Scott’s schoolmate and best friend who secretly loved him for years.
Mixing motive from the classic horror films with the setting and characters of 1980s teen comedies looked like a good idea. Unfortunately, when it came to working it out and put the concept into practice, almost everyone’s creative talents failed. The only exception is Michael J. Fox, who puts his short stature to good use, especially in the scenes when his character is faced with bullying and intimidation, thus easily earning audience’s sympathies. The script by Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman, on the other hand, never deals with some practical aspects of lycanthropy and uses Scott’s condition only as an excuse for annoyingly generic teen comedy. That includes annoying cliches, like protagonist yearning for sultry and seemingly unattainable blonde who ultimately proves unworthy of him, unlike seemingly unattractive brunette. To make things worse, Teen Wolf fails even as generic teen comedy, with many jokes being weak of simply not funny. And, just like with many 1980s teen comedies, authors try to compensate for that with extensive use of pop soundtrack, which is mostly unlikely to attract later generations of viewers. Made with a shoestring budget which precluded massive use of makeup and special effects, Teen Wolf features none of gore or extreme violence, making it surprisingly family-friendly. That allowed the original film to become big hit, although the critics were mostly hostile. Teen Wolf got forgettable sequel few years later and remake in the form of eponymous serious drama series in 2010s.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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