Wolfen
D: Michael Wadleigh (1981); with Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos, Gregory Hines, Tom Noonan, Dick O’Neill.
This is a terrific post-George Romero modernist horror film (Night of the Living Dead marks the modern period of revisionist horror films) about ancient spirits, deadly animals, and the nightmare landscape of the modern urban city. A detective is assigned to investigate what looks to be a series of gruesome animal attacks. Better than average, the film is the only narrative effort from Wadleigh, the director most famous for shooting and directing Woodstock. Wadleigh burst on the scene as a cinematographer shooting three classics in three years. Working with Martin Scorsese, he was the cinematographer on Scorsese’s first feature, Who’s That Knocking at My Door? (1968). He followed this by shooting Jim McBride and Kit Carson’s notorious David Holzman’s Diary (1968) — once a must-see film for every film student and film maker. In 1970, he climaxed with his dual effort as director and cinematographer of Woodstock (Scorsese was one of the editors). Then Wadleigh disappeared until this effort in 1981. Despite its real power (which may have diminished over the years because the film is so imitated), Wolfen didn’t do very well. The film was Wadleigh’s last credit. If the Internet Movie Database is to be believed, Wadleigh now “works as a transit bus driver in Akron, Ohio.” Woodstock is famous, but Wolfen is a notable work.
This article appears in February 2 • 2001.