Review of Teen Wolf (1985) by Ryan H — 28 Feb 2012

There are some pretty great 80s teen movie things going on in this film, and there are some not so great things. The biggest problem I had was that Teen Wolf had a lack of heart. Yes, it does all of the silly beats that you just can't help but love, but without the heart those beats feel empty.

The whole film just flies by. Michael J Fox has fun with the role of Scott who discovers he's a werewolf. His father and mother knew all along, but they never told him. They hoped it would skip a generation.

The film opens up with him already experiencing some changes (the first one being a long hair on his chest). It would have been better if he didn't have the conversation with the coach about it not being puberty, because it really plays as a good parable to the next step in manhood.

I laughed at the coach: a guy who says to come see him if he needs anything, but as soon as he asks him for help he says he's swamped. Then you have the main character who likes the popular girl, but the not-so-popular girl that he's been friends with since childhood is the one who is in love with him.

So this change is what's going to make the popular girl finally want him and he has to make the choice between the two. He has a goofy best friend named Stiles who is hard to pin down. He acts like an outcast, doesn't have a girl, but everyone seems to like him at the party.

There's really nothing special about Teen Wolf. It could have been great if they would have taken time to build up the characters surrounding the werewolf plot. Instead it's just basketball and girls.

I'm fine with that, but I just think that it didn't really care about the characters in their goofy situations quite like other 80s teen films.