WOLFKIN *** Luxembourg / Belgium 2022 Dir: Jacques Molitor. 90 mins
This offbeat riff on lycanthropic opens potently with a fairly explicit sex scene, full-frontal nudity and a key character walking off in a distressed state. Subsequently, in Brussels, single mother Elaine (the excellent Louise Manteau) is under pressure at home and at work. Her troubled 10-year-old-son Martin (Victor Dieu) scratches a classmate and the teachers have pretty much given up on him. At his birthday party, he also savagely attacks and bites a young guest. Elaine takes refuge at the family home of the boy’s dead father in Luxembourg: an old hunting family with dubious traditions and what appears to be a dangerous, inherited hormonal imbalance.
The superb performances ensure this compels, and there’s an empathetic treatment of an adolescent “monster”-in-waiting, complete with dehumanising medical tests (a la Regan in THE EXORCIST) and concerns expressed about the boy being treated like a circus freak if wider attention is brought upon him. It’s a commendable, character-driven and humane approach to werewolf / body horror themes – with Manteau’s sincere work selling the anguish. The shift into more overtly dramatic / horrific realms for the climax, however, somehow sits ill-at-ease with the involving build-up.
Review by Steven West
WOLFKIN is available to rent/buy in the USA on Amazon Prime Video