Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Teen Wolf Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson August 9, 2017

At the time of its theatrical release in August 1985, Teen Wolf was the eighth werewolf picture of the eighties, joining a crowded list that includes Full Moon High (1981), Wolfen (1981), The Howling (1981), An American Werewolf in London (1981), The Beast Within (1982), The Company of Wolves (1984), and Fright Night (1985). Teen Wolf is itself a loose re-imagining of I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) starring Michael Landon, but this first feature film from television director Rod Daniel (K-9, Beethoven's 2nd) contains a lot more levity and comedy than it does fright and horror. In his fourth big screen appearance, Michael J. Fox stars as Scott Howard, the teenage son of his hardware store manager father, Harold (James Hampton). Scott is tired of just being average in everything and has lofty dreams of transcending his humbling middle-class suburban life in Fremont, Nebraska. He is a five-foot four-inch point guard for the Beacon Town Beavers, a dreadful high school basketball team that got trounced by a score of 77-12 at the hands of an intramural team. Besides leaning on his dad for advice, Scott also seeks counsel from his basketball leader, the atypically easy-going Coach Finstock (Jay Tarses). Scott's smart and spunky friend, Boof (Susan Ursitti), isn't afraid to tell him what she thinks but he's less interested romantically in her than vice versa. He would much rather date the school's blonde bombshell, Pamela (Lorie Griffin), but she's been seeing Scott's nemesis, the supercilious jock Mick (Mark Arnold).

At his school locker, Scott begins noticing bodily changes such as the long hairs growing on his chest. He also sports long fingernails and hair tufts around his hands. Upon inspecting himself in the bathroom mirror, Scott's developed elongated teeth and before he knows it, he's transformed into a werewolf. Scott's locked himself in but Harold Howard assures his son that it's okay to reveal himself. Scott sees in plain sight that his dad's also a werewolf and lycanthropy is part of the Howard ancestral lineage. Howard encourages Scott to not be afraid of using his newfound powers. In the middle of a basketball game, Scott turns lupine and while this gives momentary shock to the players and spectators, they come to embrace the kid's gift. Scott can jump and score at freewill, single-handedly lifting the Beavers to victory after victory. He wins Pamela over and becomes the big man on campus. Yet through all this adulation, Scott realizes that he already was different and doesn't need to activate his alternate wolf-self in order to express his individuality. He can still achieve things as a perfectly flawed human.

Mirror Stage: Scott can't believe the drastic makeover his face has undergone.

While Teen Wolf wisely eschews the clichés and tropes of eighties teen comedies, its screenplay by Joseph Loeb III and Matthew Weisman follows a formulaic structure in the underdog hero's journey. It's a pleasantly entertaining film but it doesn't take bold chances or offer any surprises. It understandably received middling reviews by critics, almost all of whom praised Fox's performance and the Edmonton native is very good in the lead. Teen Wolf finished filming well before Back to the Future was completed and Atlantic Releasing, the indie's distributor, made the shrewd move of postponing the release date well into the summer once they realized Universal had a big hit in the making. (Artistically, Teen Wolf suffers in comparison to Zemeckis's time-travel classic.) Atlantic made the picture on a budget of $1.6 million (according to Tennessee journalist Ken Beck) and went on to gross over $33 million at the US box office.

Teen Wolf Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This Collector's Edition of Teen Wolf courtesy of Shout! Factory marks the movie's second release on Blu-ray, six years after MGM's bare-bones edition. Shout! advertises this as a "new 2017 high-definition film transfer taken from the interpositive." Appearing in the film's original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the 2K scan differs remarkably from the 2011 transfer that my colleague Marty Liebman reviewed. I have analyzed frame grabs side by side and conclude that the MGM picture is cropped on all four sides. It also has definite brightness boosting in many spots with a tan/orange tinge. Skin tones are lighter and more natural looking on the Shout! As Marty noted in his review, the MGM transfer appears "soft and hazy, not to mention littered with a large number of black splotches, white speckles, random vertical lines, several jagged edges, and a few slight halos." Shout! has largely cleaned up these visual anomalies, with only a couple of blotches creeping into the frame. Black levels are especially deep (see Screenshot #s 3, 9, and particularly 10). Film critic Andrew Adler of the Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) noticed a boom microphone at the top of the frame in one of the theatrical release prints but there are no mics visible on this transfer. Colors are better defined on the Shout! along with a sharper image. Shout! delivers an MPEG-4 AVC encode for the main feature, which carries an average bitrate of 31000 kbps.

Twelve scene selections are accessible from the main menu or via remote. (The MGM disc had no menu at all.)

Teen Wolf Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! has given Teen Wolf's sound track a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo mix (1869 kbps, 24-bit). The new lossless audio represents both a boost and an improvement over MGM's DTS-HD MA Dual Mono mix (668 kbps, 24-bit). Brandon A. Duhamel of TheaterByte complained that MGM's monaural "sounds a bit boxy and the dialogue sometimes falls a bit too low. There is also some audible crackle than can be heard here and there." Depth and range is much better on Shout!'s track. Dialogue is clearly audible with no big dips. The electronic keyboard strokes emanating from Miles Goodman's original score are reproduced with crystal clarity. The treble particularly stands out and bass beats are occasionally thunderous. Goodman also reportedly wrote seven of the ballads that are heard in the film. They're spread nicely over the center and front speakers. The Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA" is a standout.

Shout! provides the option for English SDH for the main attraction.

Teen Wolf Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

On the television version of Teen Wolf, four deleted scenes were aired that were not in the theatrical cut. Unfortunately, those are not included on this BD. In addition, the family of Rod Daniel recorded an audio commentary with the director before his untimely death. Shout! did not port it over but it can be accessed here. For its extras, Shout! produced a feature-length documentary on the film, the movie's original theatrical trailer (MGM's lone extra), and a photographic slide show.

• Never. Say. Die. The Story of TEEN WOLF– A Comprehensive Documentary About the Making and Legacy of the Film, Including Brand-new Interviews with the Cast and Crew (2:23:11, 1080p) - a retrospective two-hour-and-twenty-three-minute documentary on the creation and legacy of Teen Wolf. It is divided into ten chapters, which can be played individually or together:
  
  1. "It's About a Werewolf That Plays Basketball": The Writing (10:18)
  2. "No Wolf, No Part": The Team (58:47)
  3."A Can of Cocoa, a Can of Mauve": The Production Design (6:18)
  4. "King of the Urban Surfing" (5:39)
  5. "It Landed On My Face!": The Make-Up (12:56)
  6. "You Are an Animal": The Double (6:03)
  7. "Everything Else is Cream Cheese": What Could Have Been (4:29)
  8. "Going Through Changes": The Editing (9:29)
  9. "Still Want to Dance with the Wolf?": The Music (3:08)
  10. "A Lifetime of Fearing Full Moons and Dodging Silver Bullets": The Legacy (25:59)
  
  The doc features interviews with writers Jeph Loeb III and Matthew Weisman; actors Susan Ursitti-Sheinberg, Jerry Levine, Matt Adler, and James MacKrell; producers Mark Levinson and Scott Rosenfelt; production designer Chester Kaczenski; casting director Paul Ventura; editor Lois Freeman-Fox; wolf make-up artist Jeff Dawn; and basketball double Jeff Glosser. This AVC-encoded supplement carries a mean bitrate of 15492 kbps and comes with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (1627 kbps, 24-bit). In English, not subtitled.

• Original Theatrical Trailer (1:53, upconverted to 1080) - a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen trailer rife with print flaws.

• Still Gallery (6:14, 1080p) - these ninety-three images comprise American and overseas posters, lobby cards, and production stills. They're displayed in color and black and white.

Teen Wolf Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Teen Wolf is a good solid '80s teen comedy that has been given a substantial upgrade by Shout! Factory. The new transfer looks sparkling and clean, easily eclipsing MGM's dated transfer. The uncompressed stereo also demonstrates noticeable improvements over the MGM mono. Shout!'s 143-minute documentary is by far the most in-depth piece produced about Teen Wolf. Owners of the MGM BD will want to replace their no-frills disc with this Collector's Edition. RECOMMENDED to genre aficionados and fans of Michael J. Fox.