Why So Blu?

Wolfcop (Blu-ray Review)

Officer Lou Garou isn’t the best cop in small-town Woodhaven – in fact, he’s probably the worst. He mostly just looks to avoid anything that could possibly interfere with his goal of getting wasted. One evening during the night shift, Lou investigates a mysterious disturbance at the edge of town and wakes up with a pentagram carved in his chest, heightened senses and body hair that’s growing at an alarming rate. To solve the mystery of his transformation, he’ll have to take on a case no normal cop would be able to solve, but this half-man, half-beast is not just a cop…he’s a WOLFCOP.

*Please keep in mind that Wolfcop is a BEST BUY Exclusive until May 12th.

 

Film 

Small town Sheriff Lou Garou (Leo Fafard) is content to carry on with his life of boozing and patrolling. A monkey wrench gets thrown into his plan when he is assaulted one night and doesn’t remember whom or what of the situation. That attack leaves him with the peculiar power of being able to turn into a werewolf at night. That’s easy enough, right?

What complicates things is that when Lou begins to dig around for clues on what happened he is greeted with many different barriers from many different people from this very small town. I smell a conspiracy and so does Lou. Lou teams up with the not-so-bright Willie (Jonathan Cherry) and with both of them on the case they will sniff out what’s really going on. Conspiracies, secrets, howling at the moon – all of these questions and scenarios are present in Wolfcop. 

Wolfcop is a film that I thought I would love sight unseen. The promotional artwork and trailer were great but the final product leaves much to be desired. The way it’s structured almost reminded me of an extended episode of Todd and The Book of Pure Evil. It’s got that same kind of energy, with fewer characters. I think the film loses most of its steam 2/3rds of the way and really drags down the film rating when you’re finally told what is going on. That’s why my film rating is sliced right down the middle.

The FX work is the start of the show. The film cost roughly 1,000,000(CAN) to make and they were able to get the werewolf to look really cool and somewhat scary. The general gore and special effects were awesome, too. The make-up effects that rear their ugly “heads” towards the end of the film didn’t do it for me, though.

Yes, Wolfcop is a grindhouse-exploitation film. It’s obviously not a great film but it lends itself well to those types of films. It is what it is and should be checked out if you’re into that sub-genre. Again, budget-wise, make-up effects-wise, the film rocks. The story could have been tweaked and a bit more cash could have been allocated for the ending but over all I would say that Wolfcop is a unique curiosity.

 

Video 

Encoding: AVC/MPEG-4

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Clarity/Detail: Wolfcop was shot on digital and it looks good for the most part. The only scenes that do suffer a bit are the ones that use minimal visual effects shots and certain scenes that come through overly soft. These scenes are peppered throughout the film and they’re day to spot.

Depth: Wolfcop may have been shot on the cheap but the look of the film on Blu-ray has lost none of its potency. There are some neat aerial shots (Canada) that look really cool and could only look this good on the Blu-ray format. 😉

Black Levels: Black levels do remain steady for the most part – I only picked up crush in a few spots and those scenes were towards to the end of the film as it was running out of steam.

Color Reproduction: The color palette is very colorful in that it reminded me of Planet Terror and Vamp. They really pumped up the red in those interior shots.

Flesh Tones: Flesh tones are natural except when Leo starts to turn into a werewolf. Everyone else looks nice and healthy.

Noise/Artifacts: I did pick up on some digital noise here and there but it was not as distracting as it would seem.

 

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH

Dynamics: Wolfcop is loud! It’s extremely loud and focused. I wouldn’t say it’s just for show but it really amps up the horror when the werewolf is unleashing his fury. The kills really benefit from that added kick.

Low Frequency Extension: The LFE channel really, er, howls! The hard rock synth infused score really benefits the most from the added low-end bass.

Surround Sound Presentation: The rear channels carry the weight of the directional sounds rally well without interfering with the front stage. Gunshots, bodies getting flung about, sound great as they’re tossed to the rear stage.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is cheese ball but sounds great.

Extras 

Wolfcop is fully loaded with a director/FX make-up supervisor and it’s a fairly good commentary. The boys talk about what it took to get the film made and what went into bringing a traditional werewolf to life. The rest of the featurettes are broken up into segments of much larger programs. They chronicle the humble beginnings of Wolfcop and what the producer had to do to raise the funds. Various Canadian resources financed Wolfcop and the journey to the final film is a neat one.  A music video, outtakes, and trailer round out the supplemental features.

• Film Commentary with Writer/Director Lowell Dean and Special Effects Make-Up Artist Emerson Ziffle

• Behind the Scenes Featurette (HD)

• Wolfcop Music Video (HD)

• Wolfcop Unleashed (HD)

• The Birth of Wolfcop (HD)

• Film Outtakes (HD)

• Trailer (HD)

 

 

Summary 

If you’re into exploitation and grindhouse style films then Wolfcop is a no-brainer. I am but found Wolfcop to be rather pedestrian in its exploits. It probably had something to do with the villains and their motivations as opposed to the Wofcop character. The Blu-ray has above average technical specifications and really cool extras, which is why the final score is somewhat higher than average.

 

 

 

Wolfcop is released on Blu-ray March 10, 2015!

 *Please keep in mind that Wolfcop is a BEST BUY Exclusive until May 12th.

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