- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Did the lynch mob really want to kill Lawrence or just keep him prisoner and/or observe him until the full moon was over?
- Dr. Hoenneger: a sadist and a quack, or a misunderstood man with a poor bedside manner whose sincerely trying to help the mentally ill but restricted by the beliefs and methodology of his time. Notably, if Lawrence hadn't been a werewolf, then forcing him to confront the fact that he wasn't changing, in front of so many witnesses, might have been a useful step for curing him.
- Awesome Music: Danny Elfman, you've done it again.
- Complete Monster: Sir John Talbot is a literal and figurative monster. Cursed with lycanthropy decades before the film, he murdered his wife accidentally and allowed his young son Lawrence to be sent to an asylum to have the memory of the werewolf tortured out of him. When Lawrence's brother was going to leave the Talbot home, Sir John didn't lock himself up on the full moon with the express intent of transforming and tearing his son apart. He allows himself to transform outside his cage shortly after, killing many innocent people and infecting the returned Lawrence. He allows Lawrence to transform and go on a killing rampage so he'll be blamed for the killings and be sent back to the asylum for more torture and insanity. Sir John had given his Indian manservant Singh a gun with silver shells to stop him should he ever lose control, but upon Lawrence's return to the manor to settle things with his father, he finds Singh's butchered corpse and Sir John gleefully informing him he'd removed the powder from the shells years ago. Seeing his curse as power, Sir John believes that he is the superior species and can do whatever he wants to anyone, even his own sons who he views as nothing more than possessions.
- Crazy Is Cool: Sir John is a proper, English gentleman who's also a keen shot with a rifle, a keen liar/actor, and a great hunter as he is dressed in different furs and his home is decorated with different stuffed beasts is a testimony of this. He's completely INSANE and a werewolf to boot.
- Improved by the Re-Cut: Almost all DVD and home video releases of the film are the Extended Cut of the film, which gives more meat to the characters and makes the story more engaging before the werewolf setpieces commence.
- Iron Woobie: Lawrence at the end, when he goes off to kill his father.
- Narm: Despite being a movie rife with dismemberment and painful transformations, all of it fails to cover up the immeasurable number of narm in every scene:
- The less than subtle over-the-top gorn fest makes the movie seem more like a horror-comedy, than the horror-drama it was meant to aim for. Seriously, the werewolf actually completely beheads a guy hitting him once.
- The director's decision to use a computer animated bear and deer. Also doubles as Special Effects Failure.
- Anthony Hopkin's Headroll.
- Old chubby Anthony Hopkins in full werewolf makeup in a battle to the death with another werewolf.
- Narm Charm: Most of the werewolf scenes, starting with their decision not to change the werewolf appearance from the black and white original.
- Nausea Fuel: Lots of it.
- Older Than They Think: "Your Wolfman ripped off Twilight."
...um, ahem. The angry letter claims that the movie is ripping off Twilight (2008) even though it's a remake of the original movie (1941) which drew from the common mythology of werewolves (circa 60 AD). The context of the letter strongly indicates that the writer believes Stephanie Meyer invented werewolves. - One-Scene Wonder: An uncredited Max von Sydow, in the extended version, as the mysterious man who gives Lawrence the silver cane.
- Retroactive Recognition: McQueen is Blackfish Tully.
- Signature Scene: Lawrence's slow, detailed, agonizing transformation in the asylum, followed by Dr. Hoenneger's cathartic Cruel and Unusual Death via spiked railing impalement.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Only Sane Man McQueen and Combat Medic Doctor Lloyd are killed with little fanfare the first time Lawrence transforms, when both could have played interesting roles in the final act.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Aberline's early suspicion of Lawrence, despite how he did suspiciously recover from a wound, considering that Lawrence did have an airtight alibi for the first attacks, having been performing on the stage far away from his old hometown, and even after Lawrence transforms, he never even investigates Sir John, despite Lawrence's saying his father was a werewolf being on the record, and the obvious signs that there would have had to be another werewolf to bite Lawrence in the first place.
- Visual Effects of Awesome: Admit it... the transformation sequences are pretty awesome, just as Rick Baker's incredible makeup effects. No wonder they won an Oscar for Best Makeup.
- The Woobie:
- You can't help but feel pretty crappy for Lawrence after his time in the asylum. You feel pretty crappy for him for most of the movie!
- Gwen as well. Her fiance vanishes and shows up as a mangled corpse, it looks like no one has a clue what happened to him, and the only guy who seems willing to help her directly is himself mauled by something. She spends a lot of the second half of the movie desperately trying to find a way to save Lawrence, but ends up having to shoot him herself. Not to mention how every time she's at Talbot Hall, even when mourning Ben, Sir John is incredibly creepy towards her.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/TheWolfman2010
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