Another WolfCop
2016
Director: Lowell Dean
Stars: Leo Fafard, Yannick Bisson, Amy Matysio, Jonathan Cherry
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
The original WolfCop came out of nowhere and was a pleasant surprise. It was a horror comedy that actually had elements of both horror and comedy. It did both things reasonably well, and against all odds it was pretty much a hit. So I’m not surprised that Another WolfCop came out. I am surprised at my opinion of the sequel. Did I love it more than the original, or did I think it dropped the ball big time? Well, grab your beer, doughnuts, and silver bullets and let’s find out.
This sequel begins right were the other left off: Officer Lou Garou (ha, get it) is both a werewolf and a cop. Yeah, that’s kind of right there in the title. In fact this movie is such a direct continuation that it hits the reset button so hard that even Willie, the comic relief and best part of the last movie, is back in this one, despite him getting killed off last time out. Oh, and the alien lizard-like shapeshifters are also back. This time they have a plan to not only kill off folks, but have babies by killing folks, since the shapeshifters are normally serial. Of course, this movie coming from Canada, the evil plot involves beer and hockey. Can WolfCop and his buddies save the day? Well, of course they can, what kind of movie do you think this is? But it is how this film chooses to tell that simple, albeit strange, story that the problems lie.
This time around we get painfully obvious puppets used a whole lot, another were-creature that Lou has sex with in human form while it is in animal form, a painfully unfunny and way too long cameo by director (not actor) Kevin Smith, and WolfCop is pushed so far into the background at times that he seems like an afterthought in a film with his name in the title. It’s also not good that in this movie it’s a straight up comedy, but most damning of all, it’s not a funny one. Look, I like toilet humor, I can giggle like a schoolgirl at immature humor, but here the comedy misses far more than it hits and far too often it relies on gross-out gags in lieu of stuff, you know, actually being funny. Even Willie (actor Jonathan Cherry), while still being the best part of this movie can do little to save it. It also feels rushed or incomplete, at least when it comes to the script, with about the last third of the film solely taking place at a hockey game (because again: Canada). There everything just tread water to pad things out to feature length, and then everything just sort of stops and ends with a desperate attempt at sequel baiting. Hopefully that one takes longer to come out so the script can be done before shooting beings or else like a shape changing lizard-baby it’s stillborn.
On to the extras RLJE films has given us on this release. First, there is no commentary of any kind. The first movie had a commentary; what, was no one proud enough of this effort to do one for this? There are some featurettes such as a making-of, meet the cast, and the makeup FX used in the film, and a set visit, but all these are on the short side and come in under ten minutes each. There is a music video, so that’s kind of cool, I guess.
Another WolfCop is a bit of a bummer, I am sad to say. As much as I enjoyed the first one, I really didn’t care for this second effort. Sophomore slump indeed. Some fans of the original may like the continued adventures here, but I am a fan of the original and I really didn’t. So because of that this one is not recommended.
