Director's Cut: The Wolfman

 

The Wolfman - Director's Cut

Genre: Horror/Fantasy

Director: James Mangold

Writer: D.R. Cobb

Based on the 1941 film

Cast: Javier Bardem, Gemma Arterton, Ian McShane, Woody Harrelson, Anjelica Huston

Plot: Lawrence Talbot (Javier Bardem) returns to the Talbot estate under grey skies and the scent of rain. The funeral of his brother is brief, sparsely attended, and tense. His dead brother's fiancé Gwen (Gemma Arterton) stands apart from the mourners in a black veil, graceful and composed. Lawrence's father John Talbot (Ian McShane) offers Lawrence a cold greeting - no handshake, no embrace. Inside the house, silence dominates. Gwen thanks Lawrence for coming, and he notices how tired her eyes look. Over dinner, John remains aloof while Lawrence asks questions no one wants to answer. Gwen eventually explains that his brother Ben’s body was found mutilated near the woods.

Later that evening, Lawrence visits the village pub to search for answers of his own. The locals grow quiet when they see him, their eyes avoiding his. Eventually, the ale begins to loosen tongues. One man whispers that Ben’s death was no accident. Another mutters about claw marks. A grizzled elder recalls another gruesome killing, long ago - Talbot’s own mother - and says the gypsies believed it was the work of a werewolf. Lawrence’s hand tightens around his glass. He leaves the pub as whispers follow him out.

Lawrence walks alone toward the gypsy camp outside the village. The camp is quiet until he hears the sound of a fiddle, then laughter. But as he approaches, the cheer evaporates into screams. Chaos erupts as a monstrous shape lunges from the shadows. Lawrence shoves a child out of the way but is tackled to the ground. The creature’s teeth tear into his shoulder before it’s driven off by fire and shouting.

Lawrence wakes in a gypsy tent, his shoulder bandaged, his shirt soaked in blood. An older woman sits beside him - Maleva (Anjelica Huston). She explains that he was bitten by something not of this world. He will change, she says, when the next full moon rises. Lawrence scoffs. She warns him not to fight what is coming. 

Back at the estate, Lawrence inspects his wound in a mirror. The flesh has already begun to knit unnaturally. He wraps it again and heads to his father's study. John, without being asked, opens a drawer and places six silver bullets on the desk - “Just in case,” he says. That night, Lawrence dreams of running on all fours and waking up with mud on his hands.

The next day, Colonel Montford (Woody Harrelson) arrives on horseback with a dozen men. He greets John as if greeting an equal and quickly makes his intentions clear: he is here to capture the beast that killed Ben. Lawrence watches silently as Montford’s men stomp through the village, demanding cooperation. At the gypsy camp, they find nothing. Maleva and her people refuse to speak. Montford threatens them and leaves empty-handed.

Lawrence meets Gwen near the family chapel. He urges her to leave town before the full moon. She hesitates, asking him why. He says only that something terrible is coming. When she presses him, he nearly breaks but instead tells her to trust him. She nods.

That evening, Lawrence follows his father through the woods to the old crypt where his mother is buried. John carries a lantern and says nothing. Once inside, he places a key into Lawrence’s hand and locks the crypt from the outside. Lawrence pounds on the door but is already shaking, convulsing. Under the pale moonlight streaming through the cracks in the stone, he transforms - his skin splitting, bones distorting, a monstrous howl echoing into the woods.

The creature inside the crypt claws at the stone before finding an opening in the roof and escaping into the forest. Lawrence - no longer himself - tears through the woods, finding a group of Montford’s hired hunters. The men barely raise their rifles before they’re torn to pieces, their screams swallowed by the trees. The beast disappears into the night.

At dawn, Montford finds the remains of his men.  One survivor whispers about a monster in a man’s clothes. Montford follows tracks back to the Talbot estate and orders Lawrence arrested. John watches with little protest as Lawrence is shackled and taken to the town jail. In the cell, Lawrence paces like an animal. When John visits, he offers vague reassurances - his lawyers will intervene. But there’s no warmth in his words. Gwen visits after. She touches Lawrence’s hand through the bars and kisses him. He tells her again to leave, but she shakes her head.

That night, under the full moon, the transformation returns. This time, Montford and a team of hunters are present, rifles ready. Lawrence begins to convulse, howling. The creature lunges at the men. Blood splatters the walls. The jail erupts in screams. Lawrence rips through the front doors and vanishes into the street. Chaos spreads through the village. The Wolfman moves from house to house, slashing anything that moves. The village square is red with carnage. Eventually, Lawrence - his fur matted with blood - returns to the crypt. He rips the door from its hinges and enters.

Inside, John is waiting. Not as a man. He too transforms, shedding human form for something ancient and terrible. The two beasts collide in a blur of claws and fangs, smashing crypt stones, drawing blood. Just before dawn, they tumble through the crypt’s ruins, each barely holding form. As the sun rises, they revert. John weakly reaches for his son and admits the truth: he was the one who killed Lawrence’s mother and Ben. Lawrence, trembling with rage, drives a blade into his father's heart.

Later, Gwen arrives at the estate. She finds Lawrence wounded and exhausted. He tells her he can no longer run from what he’s become. Gwen says she doesn’t care - she loves him. He asks her to stay, but on one condition: she must lock him in the crypt every night, without fail. She nods, tearfully, and takes the key.