Marina Antunes [Celluloid 06.06.14] horror comedy



On the surface, the idea of mashing a cop movie with a werewolf movie sounds completely ridiculous and to be fair, Lowell Dean's WolfCop is pretty ridiculous but it's the best kind of ridiculous. The kind that you want to share with your friends and re-watch with beer and pizza and perhaps even model Halloween costumes after. Yes, it's a bit crazy. Crazy fun!

Lou Garou isn't a very good cop. He drinks too much, shows up late and as far as his co-workers and the townsfolk are concerned, he's pretty much good for nothing more than downing drinks at the local bar. After a particularly heavy night of drinking, Lou wakes up feeling worse than usual but he makes the best of it, even doing some actual police work but the day doesn't end so well – he transforms into a werewolf and wreaks havoc for a while before being taken down by his best friend Willie. The pair soon discover that Lou has been turned into a werewolf on purpose as part of an evil occult grand plan and worse still, he's not the first victim of this weird cult.


There's a bit more than that going on, truth be told WolfCop has far more story and character development than I could have possibly anticipated, and as much fun as it is to discover this world of cults and werewolf creation with the characters (it's great that we know just as little as the lead character does – makes the discovery more entertaining), what really makes WolfCop fun are the tongue-in-cheek moments. The subtle (and not so subtle) references to the movie's Canadian-ness (just in case you're starting to forget where this awesome came from), ridiculous touches (like the name of the local donut shop), a sex scene so over the top (set to Gowan no less!) that it gives The Room a run for its money and most notably the outstanding werewolf transformations.

Emersen Ziffle's werewolf design isn't only impressive, the transformations themselves are spectacular and Dean captures them, particularly the first, in minute detail. I love that for once the camera isn't cutting away and cutting back to the finished transformation. We get to see the entire ugly thing - and it's a thing of beauty and though not quite en-par with the bar setting An American Werewolf In London (hard to believe we haven't managed to top this yet), it comes pretty damned close; particularly the first time we see it, a scene so gloriously horrifying that I could barely believe what I'd just seen.

If you can't handle a bit of over acting, some cheesy dialogue and awesome werewolf transformations, then this movie is not for you but if you dig a bit of camp that wreaks of 80s nostalgia, then WolfCop is not to be missed, especially since it marks the beginning of what will likely be a ridiculously entertaining (and unlikely) franchise of awesome.

WolfCop opens in various cities across Canada on June 6.

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