CD Giveaway - 33Miles, "One Life"
Ends Aug 4, 2010
The country-pop sound established in their eponymous debut is a mainstay for this album as well, and even adds a little more southern flavor. |
CD Giveaway - Phil Wickham, "Cannons"
Ends Aug 3, 2010
With an opening shot that hits the sonic pinnacle, this collection of spiritual Brit pop/rock is heavily influenced by Keane, Travis, Coldplay, and U2. |
DVD Giveaway: Kick-Ass
Ends Aug 1, 2010
Get ready to have your ass kicked when this DVD of awesomeness releases to the home entertainment market. |
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DVD Review: The Real Wolfman
by R.J. Carter
Published: March 12, 2010
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Rating: 
Country: USA
Release Date: February 9, 2010
Distributor: A&E Home Video
Grade: B+
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Lon Cheney immortalized the classic Universal Monsters version of the lycanthropy-stricken man who would become an anthropomorphic wolf when the moon was full. But what real life events might have transpired to cause such a fanciful creature to begin haunting the darkened recesses of a frightened collective mind?
In the latter 1700s, in Gevaudan France, a series of grisly slayings took place, targeting mostly women and children. Survivors reported a strange, wolf-like creature who was smart enough to evade capture -- and who even stood upright like a man. It didn't take long for rumors of a werewolf to begin spreading across the countryside, a dangerous superstition to take hold in a France where King Louis XV was trying to instate an age of reason and rationalism. Eventually, the beast was reportedly killed by a local man, armed with a silver bullet blessed by a priest. The body was unidentifiable to the populace as any recognizable animal.
In this History Channel film, two modern investigators return to the scene of the crimes to solve one of the world's oldest cold cases. On the one hand we have Captain George Deuchar, a criminal profiler for the New Jersey police. In his estimation, he's looking for a serial killer. On the other hand, there is Ken Gerhard, a cryptozoologist from Texas, who will be looking for evidence of a new kind of creature responsible for the killings.
As the two pore over documentation of the period, we're treated to breakaways to bits of mythology and more recent history. The producers show a CGI demonstration of how a human skeleton would have to change in order to accommodate such a transition between species. We'll visit Burlington, Wisconsin, to learn a little bit about the wolflike "Beast of Bray Road" reportedly skulking about that area. And we'll see people stricken with hypertrichosis, a syndrome that results in excessive hair growth on the face or the entire body.
The interesting bit about "The Real Wolfman" is that, unlike similar "journeys into mystery" that leave things open to interpretation after presenting a mountain of slanted evidence, it remains on something of an even keel. Superstition isn't even considered. People really died, and something really killed them, and by the time the film wraps up, both investigators are in agreement that they've solved the mystery. And it's all presented in a way that will have most viewers convinced.
Well, all except maybe the residents of Gevaudan. Local mythology, after all, is often a jealously held treasure.
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