The Wolfman

If you took equal thirds Downton Abbey, classic Universal Monster movie and "American Werewolf in London" minus the humor, you somehow end up with the terrific 2010 remake THE WOLFMAN.

Benicio Del Toro is Lawrence Talbot, a famous stage actor returning to his massive family estate when his brother's fiance Gwen (Emily Blunt) reports him missing.

After facing off with his eccentric father Sir John (a go-for-broke Anthony Hopkins), Lawrence is caught in the middle of a battle with a horrifyingly fast & violent creature in the woods that sinks its teeth into him.

If you're more than 12 years old, you know what's going to happen when the next full moon rises.

Writer Andrew Kevin Walker also wrote "Se7en" and brings some of that same sense of dread and suspense to this classic tale, setting up some horror scenes that could easily be modern classics.

The entire "lets sit Lawrence down in an amphitheater filled with doctors and prove to him it's all in his head as the full moon rises in that window" scene is flawless.

The chase through the crowded foggy streets and rooftops of London that follows is just as good, a great match of special effects, Danny Elfman's terrific music score and strong acting by all.

Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, Lord of the Rings) is especially good as a detective suspicious of Lawrence and wide eyed at what he finds.

Geraldine Chapin (Doctor Zhivago) is a mysterious Gypsy woman with keys to the legend and Art Malik (The Living Daylights, True Lies) is Si John's long suffering man servant.

Watch for Rick Baker as one of the townspeople hunting the Wolfman, he is the special effects artist that created the make-up and transformation scenes for both this and "American Werewolf". Great work in both films.

The entire movie looks fantastic, as long as you dont mind your Victorian costumes splashed with massive amounts of blood and severed limbs.

Del Toro and Blunt are both good, giving real depth to Lawrence and Gwen. of course this isn't Del Toro's first time playing a wolfman. In one of his first roles, he played the "Dog-Faced Boy" in 1988's "Big Top Pee Wee". I think he'd rather you remember this role....

100 times superior to Universal's horrible Tom Cruise "Mummy" reboot nearly a decade letter, THE WOLFMAN is a terrific homage to the original classic, stuffed with jump scares, hairy transformations and dark mansions.

It got lost in theatres, not even earning half of its $150 million budget.

I loved it. Lock the doors, bolt the windows and check it out the next full moon.

It gets an A.