I remember this to be the first werewolf film I ever rented (but not the first one I ever watched; I was already familiar with Oliver Reed, David Naughton and "Eddie Quist" at the time, not in particular with their names, of course, but more with the werewolf films they're attached to). Ripe enough to tell right from wrong, but not aged enough to tell the difference between a good or a bad movie. So, I remember enjoying LONE WOLF back then, but as years passed by I knew I had to re-visit it eventually and re-evaluate things. Found me an old VHS tape of it and re-watched it. And boy, is this one silly and downright bad low-budget production at moments. Horrible 80's hair-do's and clothing. Horrible 80's hard rock music (it features a pretty awful rock band in the film, trying to struggle their way to fame but they never go beyond playing in the same club over and over again). Very bad acting from most of the cast members. A cast that's supposed to by playing teenagers in high school but they all look much older. Lots of colorful, oh-so-typical 80's lighting. Retarded attempts at humor on rare occasions. And so on and so on...
However,... the film does have two more or less redeeming qualities. One is that the plot is constructed as a mystery. Granted, it's painfully easy to guess who the werewolf is, but it is somewhat entertaining to see how the filmmakers are desperately trying to set the viewer off on the wrong foot numerous times. Secondly, there's the werewolf. And, yes, the film features a brief transformation-scene. Hooray for that! It looks a bit clumsy, but they did the best with the little means they had, and we get the works (teeth growing, pointy ears appearing, face stretching, claws bursting through fingers, hair growing). Other than this scene, the werewolf is previously shown throughout the movie mainly in brief close-ups (the eyes, the mouth, the teeth, the claws,...) or silhouettes. Fair enough. It all looks a bit fake, of course, but still neat to look at. There's a bit of gore too, stuff like hearts ripped out, a face torn in half and a guy getting his head ripped off. The film even has a little twist in its tail (sort of a surprise shock ending) that I totally forgot should have been coming because I was so amused by the dumbness of the rest of the movie.
I can't really recommended LONE WOLF to anybody, but it is a fun bad werewolf flick. I'd put it right up there with other late 80's straight-faced shenanigans like MINDKILLER (1987) and THE BRAIN (1988).
