The Wolfman, directed by Joe Johnston and produced by Scott Stuber was domestically released on the 12th February 2010. This film was financed by Relativity Media who worked hand in hand with Universal Pictures. The film stars Benicio Del Toro as the protagonist with supporting actors Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving. These actors are well established in their fields and have appealed to audiences across various age groups over the years. Their popularity acts as unique selling point for the producers.
The Wolfman is a remake of the 1941 classic which was also produced by Universal Pictures which was successful enough to be followed up by sequels later in the 40s. The classic Wolfman franchise brought about the popular conventions mainstream audiences have been accustomed to such as a werewolf’s vulnerability to silver, a full moon triggering a werewolf’s transformation and so on. These examples have been seen in television series such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Charmed which are now part of popular culture. It could be suggested that Joe Johnston presents modern day audiences with an adaptation of the original film yet still applying the same conventions of Lycanthropy introduced in the original Wolfman.
The narrative follows the story of an American theatre actor named Lawrence Tabolt (Benicio Del Toro) who is persuaded by his missing brother’s fiancé Gwen (Emily Blunt) to come back to his home town in England in search of his missing brother. Soon after finding his brother’s mutilated body, Lawrence is attacked by a werewolf and soon after becomes one. The story plays well with elements of science, myths and elements of the supernatural.
The duration of The Wolfman teaser trailer is 1:33 seconds and this particular trailer being analysed was released as the second teaser which had extended scenes giving the audience more detail about the film. This trailer features sequences of interesting use of mise en scene,peculiar shots, camera angles and effective sound.
About 3 seconds into the trailer, the universal logo is introduced onto the screen with creative spin on the animation. The logo has become synonymous with the universal monster pictures such as The Mummy series and Van Helsing. Rather than the globe being prominent and colourful (green, blue and brown), it has a low saturation to the point where the globe is a dull dark blue almost appearing black. This connotes a sense of lifelessness and coldness that sets the tone for the rest of the trailer. The ‘Universal’ text written across the animated globe is the conventional white bold sans serif font with the use of shadows around the text which adds to the significance of the word. The magnitude of the text is also unquestionable because the text takes up most of the space in the frame.
Then the low saturated globe begins to rotate on its axis while a glowing light beams behind it in background. This could give the impression that the globe is blocking the light, ultimately forming an eclipse. The moon also appears to have wrapped itself around the globe and thus the globe cross fades into a full, luminous moon and the text fades to scribbles written with a misty or cloud effect. The use of these motion graphic transformations gives a concise indication of one of the themes of the trailer which is the Wolfman’s metamorphosis. From this point, the audience can deduce the fact the full moon is linked with the idea of werewolves.
As the voiceover is introduced, the shot zooms out of the computer generated moon and transitions into a smooth fade. In this shot , the narrator personifies the moon, giving it a feminine interpretation. “She exerts enormous power, doesn’t she?” The voice over was done by one of the characters (Anthony Hopkins), possibly because the audience are introduced to the setting and characters on a more personal level rather than a generic narrator doing talking. This sentence also has foreboding tone which could give the audience the impression that there is a subliminal message encoded within the statement. ‘Exertion’ of power could imply that the moon’s luminosity and radiance has the power to create and sustain substantial visibility at night. This could also connote that a full moon has the power to force out a man’s inner demon, hence, the involuntary transformation of a man to a werewolf.
Somewhere within 15 seconds in, there is an establishing shot that slightly tracks a secluded mansion, which is surrounded by a mist, withering trees and sheep suggesting that the era is dated back quite a few decades. The withering trees could represent the end of something and the beginning of something else, for example the change from autumn to winter. Also, those who lived in the mansion may live a life of solitude and this can be conveyed through the bleach bypass colour grading, its gives the shot a cold reception for the audience and therefore evokes the impression that something terrible could be coming. The use of non-digetic sound is effective due to the acoustics and percussion because it’s gradual, strong and synchronous to the transition in shots. By constructing a bridge with the visual style, the non-digetic sound again reinforces the theme of death.
22 seconds into the trailer, there is a medium side close up of Hugo Weaving on a train looking down at his lap, the eyeline match shows he was looking at a small box of silver bullets. The low key soft light could be used as a tool to imply the character has a good as well as a dark side which implicates the complexity of the character. As mentioned earlier, the use of silver to kill werewolves is a reoccurring motif in the trailer, the generic conventions of the Wolfman is the use of silver bullets or blades to kill the monster, hence is self reflective of that convention with is gothic horror.
After about 40 seconds in, the extensive and well thought out costume design adds great effect to the fact that the narrative is set several decades back in time. This detail is evident in the way Hugo Weaving is presented. There is a medium close up shot where bystanders (extras) are running away screaming and his character stays to investigate whatever caused the panic. He was wearing an old fashioned suit with a top hat of some kind and a beard that covered most of the lower half of his face; this is suggestive of the fashion of that era being formal or official.
In addition to the characters’ wardrobe, Benicio is dressed as wealthy middle-ages man however, through the progression of the trailer, his clothes become tattered as though he is degenerating into something increasingly barbaric and truculent. For instance, there is a shot of him 16secs into the trailer with a suit but then into the first minute, he is completely stained in blood and his white shirt is full of dirt. Also, in the 43rd second, his character is strapped like a criminally insane person in a inverted shot. He wears a beige straitjacket which is supposed to help the audience conclude the state of the man’s s`anity is ‘clearly unstable’. The dramatic irony here is that the audience are aware of his ‘dark’ secret and that he would break free of the straps and buckles.
Further more,Emily Blunt’s character, Gwen is presumably the love interest of the protagonist andshe is most certainly the ‘damsel in distress’ fitting to this monster horror. Somewhere about 25seconds into the trailer, there is a medium shot of the Emily’s back sitting on a bed with most of her body naked only covered by bed sheets and candles lit around her symmetrically. This shot gives off an erotic sensation which connotes that her character is being sexualised. Towards the 38th second, long, wavy brown hair down is resting on her chest and she is dressed in a white, modest old fashioned dress fitted with a corset. This white dressed is stained quite dirty and her non verb communication shows that she is frightened and lost for breath presumed she was running from something. Her long dark wavy hair could connote strength and beauty almost portraying her as a heroin; even though she fears for her life, she is still courageous.Which is a popular horror convention in films such as ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ or ‘Gothika’ where there is an independent, leading female character facing the ‘monster’.
In a sequence 1:14seconds into the trailer, the close up shot of a man transforming to a werewolf is striking because his human features are gradually morphing into something beast like. In that close up shot, the man’s molars and front teeth are still intact but the change begins to occur in the elongation of the canine which implies something beastly and animalistic. The motion capture of the man’s furrowed eyebrows and squinted eyes suggests anger and rage irrupting from the inside. Hispealing skin, massive increase in facial hair and the tearing buckles and straps denote the uncontrollable chain reaction from man to beast which would soon occur and cause terror. Another helping tool here is the use of a growling sound effect which echoes and resonates like a lion’s roar which promotes greater realism is sound and the beast’s gradual transformation.
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