Review: The Wolfman ***

Back in 1992 Anthony Hopkins had a hand in the rebirth of vampires as a modern-day obsession.

The fanged fiends had fallen out of favour, but the film, Dracula, starring Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves and Hopkins, made vampires sexy again.

If the hope is that Hopkins' star wattage will help do for werewolves with The Wolfman what he did for the undead in the early nineties, then it doesn't quite work: even when the wolf, pre-transformation, is Benicio Del Toro.

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The film is based on the 1941 movie starring Lon Chaney Jr and this owes more to those old-fashioned scare-fests than to modern-day slasher movies, although gore is not thin on the ground.

Del Toro is Lawrence Talbot, an actor who returns to the English stately home of his disturbed youth, where his eccentric father, Anthony Hopkins, lives with his faithful man-servant, Singh, played by the graceful Art Malik.

That Malik's manservant is called Singh, gives a clue to the kind of crass, broad strokes, with which this picture is painted: let's just say that the script will have been easy to carry around.

That, however, is part of the charm of The Wolfman.

While those involved may have convinced themselves they have taken part in an exploration of the dark side of human nature and the like, they have essentially made a fun, good old-fashioned romp, complete with pubs populated by people with dodgy northern accents, a werewolf chase through the streets of London and a final showdown between a young pup and a greying old hound.

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Knights of the realm Sir Antony Sher and Sir Anthony Hopkins have enormous fun tearing up the scenery – only Hopkins, literally, as the grizzled but powerful old werewolf, and Sher as a dodgy doc in an asylum.

Be willing to have as much fun watching as the two of them clearly had in making the film, and you will be well rewarded.