Wolfcop (2015) - Review

Originally published May 2015.

Browsing through Netflix's instant streaming list of movies is a very mixed bag. Most of it is terrible, and only half of that is the good type of terrible. However, every once in a while you might come across one of the more entertaining bad movies. Wolfcop is one of those movies.

Suggested by Netflix for previously enjoying another terribly good movie, Big Ass Spider, Wolfcop made a lasting impression before the movie even started with this picture in the preview area.

What more could I have asked for in a preview image? While there are never any moments in the film where he just lies down on a human-skin rug by the fire, nor does he do a photo shoot for a calendar, the picture still puts the exact preconceptions in your head prior to viewing: it's dumb, it's ridiculous, there's gonna be violence, and it's got a sense of humor to it. All these expectations were met by the time the movie was over for me.

Lou Garou is the deputy for a small mountain town, which would be on the fast track to a ghost town if it wasn't for the fact that they had a business for alcoholics in town with the busy local bar and their annual festival event: The "Drink-n-Shoot," where hunters get drunk and go out into the forest together because that's a good idea. Lou is a fervent drunk himself and is considered the town's biggest fool for being so drunk and belligerent all the time. He couldn't even muster the energy to care about the law when witnessing a citizen being beaten by gang members.

It isn't long before Lou takes on his namesake (pronounced similarly, loup-garou is "werewolf" in French), transforming into a werewolf in one of the more surprising transformation sequences I've seen in a werewolf movie, and finds himself deep in a murder-mystery of the town that's older than he is. In between trying to solve a murder and the mystery of how he became a werewolf in the first place, he also uses his transformed persona to violently enforce the law, thus meeting our expectations from the title of the film.

I mentioned Big Ass Spider earlier because that movie had a similar budget value, sense of humor, and self-awareness to it. The people making these movies knew the films were dumb, so they gave them simple titles to sum up their attitude towards the picture and just did their best to have fun and make the film entertaining. As a result, both movies made me question the definition of a "bad film" for how much I enjoyed them despite being what many critics would consider "trash." Making a "bad" film is often a four-way street. There are the movies that are:

• Unintentionally bad that are just plain terrible and not fun

• Unintentionally bad that are so absurd and bad, they become fun

• Intentionally bad that aren't funny or fun to watch

• Intentionally bad that are smart enough to be fun and funny

Wolfcop and Big Ass Spider manage to fit themselves into the latter category. While they're no Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, which directly pokes fun at its inspiration, they manage to take a silly premise and write their humor into its ridiculousness. The characters, the events, and the premise itself may be dumb, but the writing and direction are more intelligent than one might expect.

Pros

• Some good one-liners

• The first transformation sequence is quite shocking, considering the exact point where the transformation starts

• The sidekick Willie, much like Jose from Big Ass Spider, has some clever quips and provides great banter throughout the film

• The movie's short runtime of less than 1 hour and 20 minutes works to its benefit. It doesn't overstay its welcome and takes very little time to get going
  The music is fun and suits the tone of the film with its Red Fang and Black Sabbath qualities

• Everything that happens in the second act.

• The makeup and effects are far from stellar but play to the movie's "bad" nature

Cons

• Not a movie you should watch too many times, as repeated viewings will dilute your enjoyment

• The amount of times we have to go through an editing barrage every time a person remembers something is excessive

Additional Thoughts

One of the biggest strengths of this film is its short run time. It doesn't allow the movie to linger too long and ends before you get too tired of it; which is something I think it did better than Big Ass Spider, even though I think that movie was funnier, overall.

Worth Seeing and where?

Wolfcop is ridiculous, dumb, and fun as the image suggested and I recommend it to anyone who's in the mood for a stupid werewolf movie. If you're disappointed, at least it's not very long.