My Review of "Teen Wolf (1985)"

Teen Wolf (1985) is a movie that I haven't seen since I was a kid. Recently, for some unknown reason I had an itch to watch this movie. I don't remember this movie being spectacular but then again I don't quite remember the whole movie. Watching this movie over again will hopefully jog my memory as to why I wanted to see it so much.

This movie starts out with Scott. He's a typical high school kid trying to figure himself out. As with many teenagers, Scott wants more out of his life. Unfortunately for him he just seems mediocre at everything. He wants to live large and be the best at something. I guess you can chalk it up to his life experience as he's never won anything in his life. When you don't win at anything you always what's on the other side of the coin.

Fortunately for Scott he has a great supportive group behind him. He has two best friends. Stiles is an opportunistic entrepreneur in the making. Then there's Boof who is obviously infatuated with Scott but Scott constantly turns down her advances. Finally we have Scott's dad who seems to be a very go lucky guy.

Scott seems to be having some weird growing pains recently and not just the puberty kind. He's going in and out of transforming into a werewolf and he doesn't know why. I guess this could be an allegory to represent puberty or even some sort of erectile dysfunction. He discovers he can't control the changes when he's somehow stimulated.

Eventually we soon discover what is actually happening to Scott and it then becomes a character study of Scott. With his new found power he now has responsibilities. No joke this is what his dad told him back in 1985. This was a superhero movie before superhero movies were big.

I did find some elements of this movie that related to me. Scott will be discovered as a werewolf in the middle of a basketball game. At first everyone's shocked but with his new found abilities he's able to carry the team to victory. At that time I realized back in the day I was the only Chinese guy in school and I was different. I probably related to the fact that Scott was noticeably different from everyone at school but yet was accepted by them. This isn't always the case with people that are different from the rest of the group. Maybe the power of sports garnered acceptance from his peers. I'm not too sure but I think I related in that sense.

There are a number of pretty cheesy and corny situations that play out in this movie. You have to remember that this is an 80's movie. Also the quality of the camera and production isn't quite what it is right now. That may turn off a few viewers but I have to say that the make up is pretty good. The way they added the werewolf makeup was pretty remarkable and still shows up pretty good today.

Not everything stands the test of time in this movie. There are a handful of scenes that are most likely deemed inappropriate in today's standards but you also have to realize that that's how things were back in the day. Although these scenes aren't totally necessary they do show the climate of the times back then.

Overall, I did have an okay time with this movie. It wasn't the masterpiece I probably remembered it to be back when I was a kid but I can see why I liked it. There are elements of this movie that can be thought of in a deeper meaning but we're talking about an 80's popcorn film. We shouldn't go that far. I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. It's entertaining enough and I think anyone could have a good time watching despite it's age.