There’s a fine line between “bad” and “so bad it’s good” and that is a line that Wolfcop not only walks, but does somersaults over while blowing a trumpet with its pants around its ankles. This movie is a beautiful disaster, an incredible low budget tale that fails over and over again and, yet, continues forward with a smile on its face, a spring in its step, and a wink to the audience as if its daring anyone to actually hate it.
Would I call this a great film? No.
Would I call it a good one? No.
Would I call it bad? Oh gods, yes.
Wolfcop is bad, but on the other hand, it’s one of the few movies I’ve ever seen that actually tries to be bad and succeeds in doing so. It’s a bad success.
I really think I’m starting to hit my contradiction limit here, so bear with me.
Lou Garou (har har har) is a cop who sucks at life. He’s a bad cop, a drunk and his entire life is going down the crapper until he happens upon a strange ritual in the woods and is transformed into a werewolf. Rather than letting his furry disability get him down, he decides to clean up the town of crime as Wolfcop but, little does he know, there is a stranger and more sinister force moving against him.
Wolfcop looks like a cheap student film. The makeup is awful, the effects are subpar, and I can’t really say many positive things about the directing, but what this movie has going for it… what saves it from being complete dog poo… is that it knows its bad and draws you in anyway and it does it in such a fun way that you can’t help but be somewhat charmed by this offbeat tale.
It doesn’t hurt that Wolfcop is brimming with a bubbly confidence either and its audacity and gumption is incredibly infectious.
In short, this is a bad movie but it has a good time being a bad movie and, in a way, that makes it… good?
I also have to say that I was impressed with the story. Sure, a crime-fighting werewolf isn’t wholly original, but Wolfcop manages to be shocking (at one point, our hero’s transformation into a wolf begins with his nether-regions — no, really!) and surprising as well. The story is all over the place, but you never really know where its going next which is also a plus.
I dug the throwback exploitative tone of the movie as well. This film would have been at right at home in the eighties. In an era when movies feel like they have to be more and more sophisticated and realistic, Wolfcop shows the virtue of being dumb and simple.
I would love to see what these folks could do with a little more budget behind them as that is one of the breaking legs of this good-bad flick, but take it like it is. I’m fairly certain that Wolfcop won’t become anyone’s new favorite movie, but I have a feeling it will get its fair share of fans nonetheless.
And yes, when they promised that Lou would return in Wolfcop 2 at the end, I was happy.
I will be waiting.
Jason Gaston 