Air
I've been waiting with keen interest for Wolfcop since I first saw the trailer on Cinecoup way back in early 2013. It ranked solidly in my Top 10 to make it to the end of the competition, and I'm thrilled to see it finally come to life, and even more excited to see Wolfcop 2 already in the works! The entire cast and crew, along with the Cinecoup team, deserves accolades for bringing the next Great Canadian Horror Comedy Cult Classic to the screen.
That being said, let's get down to the business at hand. I'm not a cinematographer, so I may be out of line, but what was up with all those close-ups? It felt a bit overdone. I'm sure you and writer/director Lowell Dean had a plan, a well thought-through shot list, and maybe you were trying to hit a number of "must haves"--but at times it felt like I was watching a soap opera. This sort of thing doesn't usually bother me much, but it happened frequently enough that it stuck out just as much as the funny bits.
Luckily, this wasn't a major distraction. Simply put: you had me at…Wolfcop.
The premise is simple and effective. Woodhaven's soon-to-be-fanged cop is a sloppy, small-town drunk, who will never make the cop-of-the-month club (and doesn't aspire to either). One night, on the prowl to break up some shenanigans, he gets clocked in the noggin and winds up in a bad way. The next day, the advent of a hairier and more smell-sensitive persona coincides with the town's drunk hunting festival (yes, drunk hunting is always a good idea). With some nefarious supernatural forces at play, and the gumption to fight the town's corrupt underbelly, our hero partakes in some crazy man-wolf transformations and finds the time to make sweet, sweet love to his lady-friend by moonlight. A wolfcop's job is never done, or so it would seem.
I found myself laughing out-loud several times, as there's a lot to like in all that fuzz. The fact is, if the story and the characters weren't so crazy, it wouldn't work so well.
Where it falls flat, as I've mentioned, is with the camerawork. I noticed that this is your first feature as cinematographer. While that's an achievement to be proud of, even the independent horror-comedy scene in Canada has a certain baseline quality of the craft. I'm sure you'll take what you've learned making Wolfcop with you to your next gig, and, I'll accept as an excuse that a movie featuring an exploding penis is perhaps not looking to win any artistic merit awards (well, maybe something in the special visual effects department). In my books, a movie like this just wants to entertain the masses, and I was entertained.
I hope that you, Lowell, and the rest of the crew come back together for Wolfcop 2, and that you bring with you the lessons from making this first flick together. It's definitely an achievement to be proud of.
Cheers to a new Canadian Classic!
Jennifer
