PRESIDENT WOLFMAN (2012)

Studio:       Wild Eye Releasing
Director:    Mike Davis
Writer:       Mike Davis
Producer:  Mike Davis, Miles Flanagan
Stars:     Marc Evan Jackson, Anthony Jenkins, Chris Smith, Del Stetson, Ashley Ann, Amanda Abel, Casey Robinson, Amy Trinh, Dean Stockwell, Clifton James, James Gregory, Biff McGuire, Jane House

Review Score:

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Summary:

In the midst of a reelection campaign, the President of the United States discovers he is a werewolf while facing a potential buyout of the country by China.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In Washington D.C., United States President John Wolfman attends a White House party while in the midst of a reelection campaign. Speaker of the House Dorothy Maxwell pledges to block the President in Congress if he refuses to support a buyout of the country by Chinese President Xiao Peng. Vice President Edward Mangle advises John that even though the American people support the proposed “Chimerica” merger, he must veto the bill if Dorothy is able to get it through the Senate floor. Meanwhile, John’s young son Bobby dreams of someday taking a trip with his father to Camp David as he recalls how his mother died tragically after driving off a cliff.

During a hunting trip with Bobby in Arizona, John is attacked by a wolf. Doctors at the Lon Chaney Memorial Hospital discover that the change in John’s blood from the bite has turned him into a werewolf. While recovering in his hospital bed, John watches a television program and learns about a Dr. Levi Timotito, whose experimental research involves canines.

After being discharged from the hospital, President Wolfman attends a White House party for the contestants of the Miss American Junior Miss pageant. John begins a romance with the contestants’ chaperone, Sandra O’Connor.

Following the party, Speaker of the House Maxwell walks home alone and is killed by President Wolfman after he morphs into a werewolf. Loose on the D.C. streets, President Wolfman next attacks White House intern Hazel and her boyfriend Billy Ray, the brother of congressman Joe Mack.

While the chief of the Secret Service deflects suspicion that the President is responsible for the wolf attacks around Washington, John seeks help from Dr. Timotito for his condition. Timotito tries to halt President Wolfman’s mutation, but ends up temporarily turning him into a hippie instead.

John continues his relationship with Sandra before calling congressmen to lobby for rejection of the proposed merger with China. Meanwhile, powerful lobbyist Maude Atkins insists that she has the necessary support to see to it that the Chimerica bill is passed. Wolfman later turns into a werewolf and murders Maude Atkins outside a gas station convenience store.

Vice President Mangle vows to keep John’s secret about being a werewolf. However, Mangle then calls a press conference to publicly out the president’s lycanthropy. Mangle assumes the presidency in order to authorize the Chinese takeover, locks down the city, and kidnaps John’s son Bobby.

President Wolfman searches for Bobby in a secret underground bunker, although Bobby ends up escaping on his own to Camp David. John eventually tracks down Bobby and they reunite.

President Wolfman returns to the White House and signs the veto. However, Mangle hides the veto paperwork before meeting with Chinese ambassador Chen aboard Marine One. Inspired by a vision of President Lincoln, John sneaks aboard the aircraft and attacks both Chen and Mangle. Wolfman defeats Mangle during a fight at Andrews Air Force Base and retakes the presidency, effectively preventing the Chinese takeover.

As a werewolf, President Wolfman arrives at Sandra’s house and savagely attacks her. She shoots and kills him. At the funeral later, John’s son Bobby howls and vows to carry on the family’s cursed bloodline. With the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, and many senior members of Congress dead, the winner of the Miss American Junior Miss pageant assumes the presidency.

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Review:

Stricken with polio, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went to great lengths to keep his affliction from the public eye, even while raising six children, pulling the United States out of the Great Depression, and combating Axis forces during WWII.  John Wolfman’s presidential difficulties belong to a different breed.  Stricken with lycanthropy, President Wolfman struggles to keep his full moon alter ego under wraps, even while raising a son solo following the joy ride suicide of his wife, courting the chaperone of a junior miss beauty pageant, and blocking a congressional bill meant to merge the USA with China so the rich and powerful can live inside individual skyscrapers (the Vice President gets the Chrysler building).

Doesn’t make sense?  Doesn’t matter.  As far as a story goes, “President Wolfman” is only as coherent as is absolutely necessary to zip nonsensically from point A to point Q.  Its creator isn’t stitching something together that can be quantified by traditional expectations anyway.  He is taking the audience on an express train ride through lunar cycle lunacy.

Billed as a “green” movie because it is Frankensteined from the recycled parts of 112 public domain and stock footage films, the bulk of which borrows from the 1973 Dean Stockwell embarrassment “The Werewolf of Washington,” “President Wolfman” is the logical evolution of MST3K-styled ribbing.  Filmmaker Mike Davis recuts, rewrites, and redubs the kitchen sink soup to produce a surprisingly smart send-up of American culture, political chutzpah, and the entire medium of film itself.  Aided by art direction from Miles Flanagan, who contributes a slick R. Crumb-influenced animated opening, “President Wolfman” doubles as a period perfect throwback to an exploitation-era aesthetic of B-movie nuttiness.

The real novelty is that “President Wolfman” is more than a mere gimmick.  Davis doesn’t lean on the stock footage splicing stunt as the movie’s lone comedic crutch.  Genuinely funny dialogue and highly professional voice work go the distance in selling the film as a wry satire of American politics in sometimes trite, but always hilarious fashion.

More than that, Davis funnels humor into each frame through any means available.  A squeegee in the background receives its own sound effect as an aside.  Words exchanged inside a men’s room are given a slight tile-walled echo.  “President Wolfman” does not chintz out on such little details, instead taking advantage of every opportunity to pack as many jokes as possible onscreen at once, whether it is by adding silly digital enhancements or the running gag of goofy teletypes.

Pointing out that “President Wolfman” doesn’t fit everyone’s sense of humor is like cautioning someone with a peanut allergy to be wary of Thai food.  It goes without saying.  Delicate comedic tastes may bristle when the dialogue substitutes r’s for l’s in a Chinese voice, fills black characters’ mouths with jive-talking slang, or playfully gives Indian accents to Native Americans.  This isn’t cheap racial insensitivity, however.  “President Wolfman” skates by on being a pastiche of the time from which its material is pulled.  The intention is innocent amusement, not deliberate outrageousness.

Up for more debate regarding questionable taste is the inclusion of a live birth scene in the backseat of a car.  I might be keener on supporting an accusation of indecency if not for the reminder that everything shown onscreen is actually taken from another source.  Director Mike Davis may be just as shocked that such a sequence already exists on film, and why not include one more WTF moment in a movie defined by WTF moments?

The irreverent attitude coursing throughout will click with those dialed in to the peculiar brand of comedy.  Others may find it insultingly childish.  As a movie disinterested in broadly appealing to all comers, “President Wolfman” is equally okay with either reaction.  Usually, films that start with a specific goal of pleasing midnight movie crowds try too hard to be kitschy.  But “President Wolfman” writes a complete application for contemporary cult classic status as a uniquely inventive experiment in audacious entertainment.

Review Score:  85

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