Wolfen. 1981. USA. Directed by Michael Wadleigh. Screenplay by David M. Eyre, Jr., Michael Wadleigh, Eric Roth, based on novel by Whitley Streiber. With Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos, Gregory Hines and Tom Noonan. 35mm print courtesy of Brian Darwas. 114 min.
Detective procedural and quasi-spiritual creature feature collide in the sadly under-seen Wolfen, which stars Albert Finney as Dewey Wilson, an iconoclastic investigator pulled out of semi-retirement to help the NYPD solve the grisly murder of a prominent real-estate mogul. Though the brass and the suits hope to blame “terrorists”—the racist red herrings include voodoo and Native American “skinwalking”—Dewey, abetted by a criminal psychologist (Diane Venora), a coroner (an excellent Gregory Hines), and a zoologist (Tom Noonan), follows a trail of evidence that leads from militant Native American activists to a pack of ghostlike super-wolves whose South Bronx hunting grounds are threatened by big-money development. Boasting lived-in performances, sumptuous cinematography, and groundbreaking in-camera special effects, Wolfen is a surprisingly agile combination of monster movie, environmental parable, and anti-capitalist commentary.