Movies
[Fantastic Fest Review] ‘Another WolfCop’ is Even Better Than the First!
Writer/director Lowell Dean’s WolfCop (our review) was the surprise hit of 2014, earning positive reviews and positive word-of-mouth from audiences. It was a serviceable film that spent a little too long on its origin story, giving us plenty of Lou Garou (Leo Fafard) and not enough of the titular lycanthropic law enforcement officer. Dean has returned to gift us with Another WolfCop, a sequel that improves upon the original in nearly every way. It amps up the humor and the gore, making for a wholly satisfying midnight movie experience.
When we last saw alcoholic police officer-turned-werewolf Lou Garou he had just defeated a gang of evil reptilian shapeshifters that secretly ran the quite town of Woodhaven. Now he and his former partner-turned-chief Tina (Amy Matysio) must face a new form of evil in the form of billionaire Stanley Swallows (Yannick Bisson). When Swallows announces that he is reopening the local brewery to produce Chicken Milk Stout (as well as gifting the town with their own hockey team), the town rejoices. Something is fishy with Swallows’s plan though, and without going too much into spoilers, mysterious things begin happening in the vicinity of the brewery.
Another WolfCop benefits from not having to spend so much of its brief 82-minute runtime on an origin story. The film opens in media res during a car chase being led by WolfCop and the action rarely lets up. When it does, the jokes come fast and furious and most of them land (the biggest exception being a recurring gag involving an anthropomorphic phallus that wears out its welcome pretty early on). The film ditches any attempt at horror, going for a pure comedy film this time around. There are jokes in here for everyone (my personal favorite was the local strip club being named “Club Phuque”), ranging from the tasteful to the repulsive (I mean that in a good way).
Fafard is as entertaining as ever and he is surprisingly game for all of the ridiculous antics that Garou gets himself into (there is a sex scene that has to be seen to be believed). Matysio is equally committed as the straight-laced Tina. Supporting turns are impressive as well, with a brief cameo from Kevin Smith even pulling in a few laughs, though he does feel out of place in the film.
WolfCop may be the star of the movie, but second place goes to the makeup department for their spectacular practical effects. For a low-budget film, the things they’re able to pull off is nothing short of remarkable. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the first film also featured top-notch practical effects, but it’s refreshing to see the trend continued here.
Your tolerance for Another WolfCop will really depend on how much you enjoy ridiculousness. There’s nothing classy about the film. In fact, it revels in its depravity, but would you have it any other way? It’s a movie about an alcoholic werewolf cop with an enormous penis who must go toe-to-toe with a nefarious beer-making billionaire. It is essentially more of the same, but the execution is better. Let’s be honest though, you pretty much know if you’re going to enjoy Another WolfCop before you go into it.
The credits promise that Garou will return in WolfCop III, and I for one cannot wait. Another WolfCop isn’t high art. It’s just a fun, gory and hilarious midnight movie that will scratch your itch for camp. If you enjoyed the first WolfCop, you’ll most certainly love the sequel!
Described as “Ted meets ET,” David Mikalson’s raunchy comedy Goblin is being brought to life over at A24, and Will Forte (“The Four Seasons”) is now in talks to star.
Deadline first reported the news this afternoon.
Kenneth Branagh has been cast to voice the titular Goblin in the upcoming A24 movie, with the character said to be “green-colored” as well as “anatomically correct.”
Skyler Gisondo (Superman) is reportedly playing the Goblin’s human best friend.
The mysterious project sounds a bit like films including A Gnome Named Gnorm and more recently, Frankie Freako, though it’s important to note that it’s not billed as a horror movie.
Deadline details, “After [Mikalson] hatched the idea to make an outrageous buddy comedy about a goblin, using a practical puppet and operating outside the Hollywood system, his script quickly got him a rep team. While others might have eyed the raunchy comedy as a writing sample or planned to wait to see the micro-budget version Mikalson has been directing in Kentucky, A24 jumped all over it. The hot indie essentially has agreed to finance a full feature.”
“There was a lot of interest, but A24 came with what Mikalson really wanted, after spending all his money crafting the puppet title character: they acquired the movie and agreed to let him make it with a significantly increased budget than what he had left after creating the anatomically correct title character,” Deadline’s report goes on to explain.
What does the titular Goblin actually look like? Well, a cake that Mikalson had whipped up for his reps might give us our first look at what to expect. Deadline explains the photo you’ll see down below, “Take a look at the cake he commissioned with Marc Gravelle at Cake Art in West Hollywood, to present to his reps as thanks for making his dream come true.”
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