'The Wolf Man' Trailer Debuts on the Internet

The trailer for a new version of The Wolf Man, staring Benicio Del Toro, has debuted on the Internet. It looks like that the iconic monster is haunting the woods and moors around late Victorian Blackpool, England.

The plot of The Wolf Man, according to IMDB, is described thus:

"Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman, is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother... and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline has come to investigate."

De Toro plays Lawrence Talbot. Sir Antony Hopkins is Talbot's father, Sir John Talbot. Emily Blunt plays the fiancé, Gwen Conliffe. Hugo Weaving plays Detective Aberline, who may be based on the real life Frederick Abberline who hunted Jack the Ripper.

The scenes in the tailor suggest that The Wolf Man will be a combination of gloomy atmospherics and modern, CGI enhanced gore. There are lots of scenes shot in soft light, as would befit the story of a monster that only manifests itself during the night of a full Moon. There are a number of shots of the transformation from man to wolf, done in full special effect splendor. There are shots of people being jumped by the creature or grabbed by it and borne away to a horrible, rending fate.

One gets the impression, though, that The Wolf Man has more in common with its namesake that starred Lon Chaney in the 1940s. Werewolves have shown up in modern cinema in the modern age almost as much as their cousin the vampire. An American Werewolf in London, Silver Bullet, Ginger Snaps and its sequel Ginger Snaps Back, The Howling, Wolf, Dog Soldiers, and the upcoming New Moon.

The new The Wolf Man returns to the idea of the werewolf as representing the id part of a human mind, the part that is pure emotion, ungoverned by reason, with the lust to rend and tear. The werewolf represents the beast within anyone, but in films like The Wolf Man, the best in manifest as a monster whose sole nature is to kill and destroy.

Sources: THE WOLFMAN trailer debuts!, Quint, Aintitcool

The Wolf Man (2010), IMDB