Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Crying Wolf
Today's film is a highly successful television series (MTV) which follows the film feature to series track. I watched the first two episodes of
The series has a long pedigree in the movies.
In 1957, A.I.P. released “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” as part of a double bill with “Invasion of the Saucer-Men.” It was shot in a week for around $80,000, starred Michael Landon. It ended up on a double feature billing. Some years later, 1984 to be exact, after a series of scary "Teenage.....whatever" films, a young director, Joseph Loeb got the new idea to put the emphasis on the teenager part and wrote a film called Teen Wolf which had the good fortune to have Michael J. Fox as its star (wolf/fox hmmm) and became a runaway hit.
In the first one the teenager was angst ridden and filled everyone with fear. In the second, the wolf thing was changed to be a kind of acceptable normality since Fox also was a basketball star and, as people found out his "secret", he became everyone's hero. It was a buddy comedy with a heart.
The film was a huge hit and is now required viewing if you want to see the teen classics.
Now comes, came this version of the Fox film which just completed its third season.
This too is a take on the kindly athlete (lacrosse) who has a wolf guy mentor (Tyler Hoechlin), a little older, a best friend who figures it all out before the wolf teen does and a girl friend who is not yet in on it (so far).
The young star Tyler Posey is great. So are the others.
I wanted to see. The boys are very good looking and the story is tongue in cheek except when it isn't and becomes scary enough to demand full attention.
I rented the first disc which has two more shows in the first season and I will watch those, then see what happens next. In the meantime, it is an easy 3 out of Netflix5.
Labels: film, television
