It's an original enough movie but certainly not the best werewolf movie I have ever seen.

Well, this movie isn't doing an awful lot wrong but at the same time it still gives you the feeling it could have been a whole lot better. Perhaps the movie was too much focused on doing something new with werewolves and tried to be original with its concept, only to forget about its actual story.

There were some things I was really liking about the movie its story though. Thing I for instance really liked about it was how it slowly transformed from a normal and very typical serial killer type of horror/thriller into a more classic monster movie type of horror. I don't think I'm spoiling much by saying that at some point werewolves start to show up in this movie. After all, just look at the movie its cover and read its title...spoils everything from the get go. I definitely would have preferred not knowing at all what this movie was all about. This would have enhanced the movie its tension, mystery and horror significantly!

It was obvious to me that director Joe Dante must have really liked the werewolf movies from the '40's (perhaps that's also why John Carradine is in it?) and also used it as an inspiration for this movie. There are numerous references to it throughout and it tries to mimic some of its atmosphere, story beats and characters, which shouldn't be a big surprise, seeing how between the '40's and 1981, when this movie got done, not an awful lot of big or popular werewolf movies got made, so he didn't have much else to go by. As a matter of fact, it wasn't until this movie that the sub genre started to become popular again and more werewolf movies started to emerge, not long after this movie became an unexpected hit.

Thing I didn't like that much about its story was how it felt a little bit underdeveloped at times. The movie seemed to have plenty of ideas in it, that too often, don't amount to anything. Some potentially interesting side-plots were going absolutely nowhere and also got abandoned after a short while. I for instance would have loved the movie to focus some more on the Patrick Macnee character, who seemed like a pretty interesting one but hardly got used in the movie.

It's a flat out horror and monster movie but the movie at the same time still attempts to give the movie a sense of realism. At times it got in the way of the movie its horror and it just wasn't always working for me. I certainly liked the movie best when it was going all out with its horror and werewolf moments! This not in the least was due to the werewolves' impressive looks. The effects and makeup used in this movie, done by Rob Bottin and Rick Baker, looked absolutely fantastic. The transformation scenes were pretty impressive as well, especially when considering this is an '80's movie, that only had a very small budget to spend.

It's not entirely without humor but for most part this is a very 'serious' and straightforward, dark, horror movie by Joe Dante. A bit surprising perhaps, since he's better known for doing lighter type of movies. Even his other horror movies are much lighter ones, such as the original 1978 "Piranha" and the two much loved Gremlins movies. So know what to expect- or more importantly, not to except from this movie!

I liked watching this movie, mostly because it was an original and effective one within its genre but it's certainly not as great as it potentially could have been!

7/10

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(Review originally written at 7 December 2006)

This is an enjoyable and good late MGM musical.

This is a good genre movie, from genre specialist George Cukor, with all of the typical and formulaic elements present in it. It's cheerful looking and slightly over-the-top, like it should be. The story is of course once more about love and the musical business.

The story might sounds formulaic and simple but it is yet the story that makes this movie distinct itself from other genre movies and make this an original one. The story is told from three different point-of-views in a courtroom, after each other. The storytelling is obviously inspired by Akira Kurosawa's "Rashômon". Does this storytelling work out perfect in this movie? I have to say no. Although it works original, it also tends to make the movie needlessly tiresome after a while. It's not always interesting or refreshing enough to follow the story from the three different viewpoints. Unlike "Rashômon", you as the viewer often feel cheated about what the real truth is. The three different stories too often make each other weaker, instead of stronger and more intriguing, even though it still makes the movie as a whole original and refreshing. So you can really say that the story and storytelling is one of the stronger- as well as one of the weaker points of the movie.

Gene Kelly is good in his role but really the main characters of the movie are the three girls. They mostly carry the movie and make the movie a delight to watch. The movie further more also features some other great supporting actors, such as; Patrick Macnee and Leslie Phillips. The characters are all fun and have some good chemistry, even though they are all far from well developed or written.

The sets, costumes (Oscar-winner) and the musical numbers are great looking, like you always should expect from a genre movie like this one, from the MGM-studios. This movie will surely not disappoint the fans.

It's a good and even one of the better and more fun musicals from the MGM-studios.

7/10

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