(Thanks to our good friend Werefan for the tip!)
Hemlock Grove is a much-hyped horror/thriller TV series produced by Netflix. It'll debut in mid-April, but the a preview clip of one of the main characters turning into a werewolf has already been released. The character is played by Landon Liboiron, who previously played a werewolf in the horribly awful The Howling: Reborn. Did he get a better transformation this time? Watch and see. My comments are below.
The transformation scene in Hemlock Grove was hyped as "something you'd never seen before." Turns out it's just another skin-ripping transformation, but with added gore. Beware of any filmmaker who claims he's reinvented the wheel.
Now, skin-ripping transformations were an interesting novelty way back when The Company of Wolves was released. In that film, men tore off their skin, and the werewolf was formed from their muscle layer; the bedrock of their flesh (as seen here, courtesy of Dutchbull). This worked in the context of the film, because it was dreamlike and surreal. But in a non-surreal film like Van Helsing, skin-ripping transformations just look stupid. Wolves and humans are mammals, and having the wolf somehow develop inside the man, like a butterfly in a cocoon, is too insect-like. (It also makes changing back into a human awkward. The only film to successfully deal with that issue was Romasanta.)
The biggest problem with skin-ripping is that it doesn't give the full sense of a transformation. Instead of seeing a man change into a wolf, you see a wolf burst out of man. Visually, it's a cheat, since the human form isn't seem transforming--it's just shucked off. So, Hemlock Grove has done nothing particularly new or original. Though it's well done, I can't say I like it. Stuff like the eyeballs popping out (another pair were waiting right behind, like shark's teeth?) is gore for gore's sake. But that obviously interests a hack director like Eli Roth more than an actual transformation.
P.S. There are lots of negative comments on youtube as well. However, those who claim that what the character transforms into "isn't a werewolf" are wrong. For hundreds of years European mythology has considered a werewolf any man who turns into a wolf. The two-legged anthromorphic werewolf is a creation of Hollywood. However, I agree with those who dislike the final form because it's an anticlimax--all that gore and shifting, and he just transforms into an ordinary wolf?
10 comments:
I for one love ripping transformations most of all.
In that case, I think "Hemlock Grove" will be much to your liking, given the high technical quality of its ripping TF.
I hate blood and gore in TFs, HOWEVER, I am intensely aroused by the idea of "rebirth", to the idea that the wolf is inside the man, almost as an embryo (as opposed to "insect"). If there was a way to show that without getting so disgusting and stomach-churning, I might like it better... I think something like "Dark Breed" knew how to do it enough.
I never understood Company of Wolves, even after someone explained the whole thing to me. It just gave me a headache, and there are only two scenes in it that DO excite me (the guy's back muscles flexing, and the hair growing on the guy's chest). The rest is just nightmares I still have today. :(
This one's too bloody and disgusting for me. I get the idea of the skin as cocoon (which, again, is an erotic idea to me, as any moment of "creation" awes and excites me), but this just seems to go the length of shock entertainment, which seems childish to me.
Oh, but Romasanta did it PERFECTLY. If only it showed the transformation in reverse!!! The rebirth in that scene NEVER ceases to arouse and amaze me!!!! :-D
FYI, this series is based on a novel, and that scene was pretty much taken right out of the book, eating of the skin and all.
The skin ripping wolf transformation if OK, but I think they should've done just special makeup effects and bladder-FX.
Maybe next time if they are going to do more werewolf transformation scenes they should do a lot of real special makeup air-bladders effects on guy's head to neck, chest, and belly; and they should do two or three animatronic puppetry transformation FX.
I really, really think that the new werewolf makeup artists ought to take their time doing millions of real Special Air-Bladders Effects, Makeup FX, and Animatronic Puppetry FX. And it would be great if they could even do the weird monster transformation Bladder-FX kind'a like how the way the legendary Dick Smith did in the 1980 horror, sci-fi movie 'ALTERED STATES.' They really should do those type of monster transformation special effects.
To Furio: I agree--the rebirth idea is interesting, though the excess gore in this scene seems to be what really attracted Roth's interest. (To be fair, as someone pointed out, the TF in the book is of the gory skin-ripping kind as well.) Romasanta did indeed handle this sort of TF perfectly.
To Anonymous: I'd definitely prefer bladder-FX, special make-up, and animatronics, but I think in Hollywood those techniques are seen as old-fashioned (despite giving superior results). Additionally, they require more thought and effort from the filmmakers, whereas directors can be lazier with CGI and off-source it to nerds with computers.
That Romansanta link takes you to 'The Last Unicorn Transformation Pt. 2'. I think this is the one you wanted: http://tfdimension.com/?id=537
Thanks for catching that mistake! I went ahead and corrected the error.
Post a Comment