MTV's gritty "Teen Wolf" reboot: where's the camp?

Michael J. Fox's 80s teen romp gets "Twilight"-ed for this generation of moody mall kids

Published March 30, 2011 7:21PM (EDT)

Emo teen (wolf).
Emo teen (wolf).

Why so serious? That's the question I want to ask of MTV's serial remake of "Teen Wolf," a film that, despite its scary title, was essentially a comedy. Right guys?

This doesn't look very funny at all! I wonder if there will still be a scene somewhere where Scott Howard wins the basketball game by using his lycanthropic powers? Somehow I doubt it: lead Tyler Posey looks as broody as Edward Cullen, with none of happy smiles of Taylor Lautner. Plus, his character is a lacrosse player.

Maybe it's just a sign of the times, since every remake these days has to be so damn moody. From "The Dark Knight" to "X-Men," every movie (and TV show) is taking our collective nostalgia and sucking all the humor out of the source material. Even Optimus Prime has a giant chip on his shoulders these days, listening to Dashboard Confessional and skulking around in his American Apparel hoodie. Or maybe it's the fault of this generation of teens…they're just so less zany than the "Porky's" kids of the 80s. (By the way, can't wait to see what that movie is going to look like as a remake. At least they put Howard Stern in charge, so hopefully it won't star Michael Cera and some other shy sadsacks.)

This wouldn't be such a problem if more and more of these reboots weren't on their way. I was actually looking forward to the new adaptation of Tom Holland's "Fright Night," but if it's going to be as much of a bummer as this "Skins"-by-way-of-"Twilight" show, I think I'll just take a pass and wait for Hollywood to come up with some new ideas.

By the way, in case you were wondering what the original "Teen Wolf" trailer looked like, it was much cooler.


By Drew Grant

Drew Grant is a staff writer for Salon. Follow her on Twitter at @videodrew.

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Horror Movies Mtv Teenagers