Book Review: The Wolfman

During one of my latest visits to the local library I stumbled upon a novelization of the 2010 remake of The Wolfman, written by Jonathan Maberry. The 2010 movie was a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine; it wasn’t as much of a horror film as I hoped, but it was a pretty enjoyable action film and it was quite pretty to look at when the entrails of hapless victims weren’t being thrown about.

The novelization almost exactly follows the movie’s script. Protagonist Lawrence Talbot heads back to his old home in Blackmoor after hearing that his brother Ben had disappeared. Back in Blackmoor he reunites with his estranged father Sir John and discovers that they had found his Ben’s corpse, mangled beyond belief. Lawrence is bitten by a werewolf while searching for the truth of his brother’s murder and transforms into the equally psychotic and dangerous Wolfman when the full moon rears her pretty head.

Even though the book follows the movie script almost exactly, it is still a bit of a different experience since the book cannot rely on stunning and gruesome visuals to create the horror of the Wolfman. What it does give readers is a better look inside Lawrence’s head, allowing readers to empathize with him much more easily. The Wolfman is already a very tragic figure in the movie; the book makes him even more so since the readers are more privy to his thoughts.

There are a few additions to the novel as well. Some of the scenes that didn’t quite make it into the movie end up in the book, particularly one where the Wolfman is temporarily entranced by the singing of a blind performer, setting up the idea that the Wolfman still has some semblance of humanity inside of him. The book also flat-out states that Sir John has lustful feelings toward Lawrence’s love interest Gwen Conliffe, something that either was only vaguely implied in the movie or proof that I need to pay more attention to the movie.

There is one scene that did not translate well into the novel: the hallucination sequence when Lawrence is committed into the asylum once more. This scene is not as gripping in the novel because it lacked the visuals that made the scene so memorable. It’s not too much of a setback though; such a scene is very hard to fully convey with words and the author did the best he could to at least convey the hopelessness, terror, and delirium that Lawrence is feeling and how nightmarish the whole experience is.

If you enjoyed The Wolfman, original or remake, or even if you’re a fan of werewolves in general, this is a book I would definitely recommend. The book does a good job capturing not just the horror of a ravenous beast perfectly capable of tearing through groups of people like paper but also the tragic nature of a man who does not want to hurt anyone but is forced to turn into an unfettered beast once a month. If you ever see this book in your library or bookstore, check it out.