History Film / TheWolfman2010

* StopTrick: The transformation sequences were shot as a series of these.

** Del Toro's Talbot bears a striking resemblance to OliverReed's Leon from the HammerHorror ''Film/TheCurseOfTheWerewolf.'' And you don't get more Spanish with a name like Benicio del Toro. The idea that love might inhibit the transformation is also from ''Curse''.

Despite not being a box office success, the film did receive an Oscar for Best Makeup. Shortly afterwards, Universal announced plans to make the ''Wolf Man'' into a direct-to-video film franchise. The first one, ''Film/WerewolfTheBeastAmongUs'', was released in October 2012.

LawrenceTalbot returns from America to his home estate to investigate the disappearance of his brother.Upon arriving home, he learns that his brother is dead, and the worst is yet to come....

* BedlamHouse: Lawerence Talbot is sent to Lambert Asylum as the police believe he's a random but human nutcase rather than, well, the WolfMan. Their attempts to cure him of believing he is a werewolf includes forcefully dunking him, repeatly, into ice water. [[spoiler: As you can imagine, once the next full moon comes around, he escapes quite easily, killing most of the doctors in the process]].

* [[spoiler: DownerEnding]]: [[spoiler:Lawrence]] dies, as does his entire family, and [[spoiler:Aberline]] ends up infected with lycanthropy.

* [[spoiler:LetThemDieHappy: Lawrence dies in the end, but he stays alive for a few moments to reassure and thank Gwen for "setting him free." However, he dies before learning that he has bitten Aberline and cursed him as well. He could also be happy from realizing that since he was still alive to that point meant he had succeeded in defeating his father, meaning neither of them will hurt anyone again. However, this only makes the ending more tragic when we find out what becomes of Aberline.]]

** Years after failing to catch JackTheRipper in London, Inspector Abberline was sent to the Moors to investigate a werewolf's killings [[spoiler:and became a werewolf himself]].

* JackTheRipper: It's mentioned that Aberline was in charge of the Ripper case before being assigned to Blackmoor. [[HistoricalInJoke Historically]], he [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Abberline was]].

* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: Much as he would like to, Lawrence is unable to stop himself from transforming and is completely subject to the phases of the moon.

* KillTheOnesYouLove: The first werewolf ends kills his wife and son; Lawrence kills [[spoiler:his father]] and almost kills Gwen too.

%%* [[spoiler: DownerEnding]]

* HorrorStruck: Lawrence is initially skeptical to being a werewolf and towards werewolves in general, until, you know, he actually '''become''' one. Played a little more straight with [[spoiler:Aberline, upon realizing he's been bitten]].

%%* InvoluntaryShapeshifting

%%* KillTheOnesYouLove: And how!

* PainfulTransformation: Turning into a werewolf is ''Much'' more painful than the ol' days of the stop motion transformation sequences where the worst part was just sitting still long enough while they applied makeup, it involves a lot of snapping bones and blood from the mouth.

Despite not being a box office success, the film did receive an Oscar for Best Makeup. Shortly afterwards, Universal announced plans to make the ''Wolf Man'' into a direct-to-video film franchise. The first one, ''WerewolfTheBeastAmongUs'', was released in October 2012.

Despite not being a box office success, the film did receive an Oscar for Best Makeup. Shortly afterwards, Universal announced plans to make the ''Wolf Man'' into a direct-to-video film franchise. The first one, ''Werewolf:TheBeastAmongUs'', was released in October 2012.

Despite not being a box office success, the film did receive an Oscar for Best Makeup. Shortly afterwards, Universal announced plans to make the ''Wolf Man'' into a direct-to-video film franchise. The first one, ''Werewolf: The Beast Among Us'', was released in October 2012.

* AnyoneCanDie

* {{Chiaroscuro}}

* [[spoiler: DownerEnding]]

* GraveClouds

* IKissYourHand

* InvoluntaryShapeshifting

* KillTheOnesYouLove: And how!

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: A big offender; dozens of men are killed and messily dismembered on screen while the very few female deaths are merely implied. [[spoiler: Or, in the case of Lawrence's mother played for maximum tragedy and horror as against the {{Gorn}} the male victims go through.]]

* NoisyNature

* NightmareSequence

* OminousFog

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent

* PeekABooCorpse

* PointyEars

* PragmaticAdaptation

* ReflectiveEyes: "''Gwen...''"

* SlashedThroat: Several!

* SuperWindowJump
* SupernaturalAngst

* SwordCane
* ThisWasHisTrueForm

* TorchesAndPitchforks
* TragicMonster
* TransformationSequence
* TravelMontage

* ViralTransformation

* AscendedFanboy: Del Toro himself had been a long-time fan of Lon Chaney, especially of his performance as Lawrence Talbot. He reveals in an interview that he always wanted to portray him, and wouldn't you know it, he got his wish.

* Novelization: Jonathan Maberry wrote one. It's noteworthy in that the author only had two months to pen the entire thing, yet the book is generally seen as a big improvement over the film. It mostly adheres to the final cut of the movie, with a couple of scenes added (such as deleted scenes) and more fleshed-out characters. There is only one significant alteration: Lawrence figures out who the werewolf on his own and does so earlier on.

* AdrenalineMakeover: Gwen gradually gets this over the course of the movie. Initially, she comes off as a very proper and somewhat quiet woman. However, as she becomes determined to find a cure for Lawrence towards the end of the movie, she starts to wear less fancy attire and her hair is noticeably a little unkempt from her nights of searching for answers. By the finale, her hair is down, she is wearing a slightly lower cut and dirtier looking dress than her earlier attire, and carries around a silver bullet loaded pistol.
* [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl Always Save The Guy]]: Gwen's actions [[spoiler: in protecting Lawrence from Aberline are understandable, but she is also putting the ''chance'' that he can be cured above the likelihood that he will kill again (and in fact Lawrence ''does'' end up infecting someone directly because of her.)]]

* DeathByIrony: Dr. Hannigan claims that Lawrence will no more likely change into a werewolf than he is likely to sprout wings and fly out the window! He doesn't sprout wings at any rate...

* FailedASpotCheck: Dr Hannigan gets so wrapped up in discussing Lawrence's delusions and the treatment he's devised, that he's the last person in the room to notice Lawrence is transforming right behind him.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Aberline is a fictionalized version of the real life [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Abberline Inspector Frederick Abberline]].

* TheAlcoholic: Lawrence comes off as this in the movie. Played pretty straight in the book adaptation of the movie.
* AllJustADream: Lawrence has quite a few hallucinations while recovering from his nasty little bite, as well as hallucinations in the asylum.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: You've had quite a nice little messed up childhood, haven't you, Lawrence? What with witnessing your mother's death and all, and being sent to a mad-house where you underwent all sorts of nasty treatments and then shipped off to live with a distant relative in America.

* GoAmongMadPeople: Lawrence gets locked in an asylum for ranting that he's a werewolf. He'd previously been committed as a boy, to help him suppress the trauma of his mother's death, [[spoiler: because he'd been ranting (quite truthfully) that his ''father'' was a werewolf and had killed her.]]

* HearingVoices: Lawrence

* InASingleBound: Lawrence quite impressively clears a police blockade in a single leap, much to Aberline's dismay.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: [[spoiler: It's not so much that he forgot, but rather Lawrence's memories were ''re-wrote'' so that real memories of his werewolf father killing his mother were made to appear that she had killed herself with a razor.]]

* MadnessMantra: Where is my father? Where is my father? WHERE IS MY FATHER?
* MadnessMontage: All the hallucinations poor Lawrence has.

* MindRape: What essentially happens to Lawrence after his time in the asylum, poor man.

* NotableNonSequitur: Sir John Talbot warns his son not to go out on the full moon, which [[SchmuckBait sets up]] the inevitable werewolf attack. [[spoiler: The Notable part of this is where Sir John tells Lawrence this because Sir John is the werewolf and ([[XanatosSpeedChess at least, initially]]) doesn't want to be responsible for his remaining son's death.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: Gwen stops Aberline from shooting Lawrence, thus causing him to be bitten and cursed to become a werewolf. Made worse that she eventually shoots Lawrence herself in self-defense.]]

* ParentalAbandonment: Lawrence witnessed his mother's "suicide" as a child, and if that's not traumatic enough, his father throws him into an asylum and then ships him off to live with his aunt in America afterwards.

* TraumaCongaLine: Things just keep getting worse for Lawrence...

* WhiteShirtOfDeath: Played for full horrific effect when Lawrence wakes up after his first transformation. The white shirt he was wearing is ''quite'' messy.

* BattleButler: Sir John's butler, Singh, is armed to the teeth with silver bullets and other monster-killing devices. [[spoiler:It didn't do him much good in the end though, and he loses points for not realizing the silver bullets are sabotaged.]]

* WeHardlyKnewYe: Ben Talbot is killed only a few minutes into the film.

* OhCrap: Dr Hannigan, upon discovering that Lawrence's lycanthropy is ''[[RealAfterAll not]]'' a delusion.

* [[spoiler:ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Dr. Hannigan]]

* DemotedToExtra: Maleva, who was one of the more helpful and prominent characters in the original, gets this. Although, Gwen [[AscendedExtra sort of fills her shoes]] as the figure trying to help Lawrence with his curse this time around.