Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, The Wolfman brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins.Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro), a haunted nobleman, is lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, Talbot sets out to find his brother... and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself. Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate.

Shelly Johnson's ashen cinematography gives every scene the look of midnight. Clouds rush past the full moon. Already-pale Victorians blanch with fear, loading their guns with silver bullets for the four-legged wolf-thing bounding the moors. Actors fulminate and masticate, spit, scowl and sob; what a gas it is to watch them overact with joy and conviction. Understatement be damned: they're in a gen-u-ine hairy-scary werewolf movie, not some Nair-chested Twilight boytown, and they are clearly loving every minute of it.