You can take the boy out of Rhyl........

.......but you'll never take Rhyl out of the boy!
(for those that don't know Rhyl is a grotty seaside town 5 miles away)
The "stunt double" for actor Benicio del Toro (aka The Wolfman) is no other than local boy Spence Wilding, and at the cinema tonight he was there at the Scala (supposedly answering questions about the film and signing autographs for a quid!).....mind you, when we entered the cinema he was sat down in a cinema seat chatting to someone on his mobile phone!...so we missed any interesting insights he might have shared about this uneven, cut-to-hell and rather miscast horror movie.
I can understand why del Toro was chosen for the lead. Craggy faced and mean and moody looking he has the "look" of wolf even before all the CGI kicks into gear, but unfortunatly he sorts of sleeps through the mayhem and gore which is set in and around a rather untidy and decaying Chatsworth House ( that doubles for Blackmoor house). It is a long time since I have seen such a lacklustre performance from a leading man.
Emily Blunt and Anthony Hopkins fare a little better as del Toro's chaste love interest and father respectively, while Hugo Weaving gives his chief inspector Aberline, a rather lugubrious and pleasing twist. And rather surprisingly an ancient looking Gereldine Chapman even pops up briefly as a gypsy wise woman ( with some dreadful looking dirty nails)
Having said all that, non of the impressive cast can save this rather unoriginal and at times rather boring movie which obviously suffers from a bit of over zealous editing, which is a shame.
Mind you, some of the action sequences are truly horrific and rather suspenseful to watch, especially when the wolfman runs amok against the obligatory Yorkshire villagers! ( and better still a Gypsy encampment), but in general I was disappointed by the whole Gothic romp thing.
Sorry Spencer! in the end I am glad I didn't fork out a pound for your autograph
6/10