“Teen Wolf,” appearing in 1985 with Rod Daniel at the helm, features Michael J. Fox portraying a teenager living in Beacontown, Nebraska. He holds down a job at his father’s shop (played by James Hampton), participates on his school's less-than-stellar basketball team, and shares a connection with a local girl (Susan Ursitti), while also having an interest in the popular blonde (Lorie Griffin). The story gets complicated when he begins transforming into a werewolf. Interestingly, this marked Fox’s debut in a theatrical film, created prior to but released following the immensely successful “Back to the Future.” Compared to that production, it's clearly a smaller-scale picture, though still entertaining within the context of an 80s teen movie. The middle portion of the story takes an unexpected direction; I won’t reveal details, but the film poster gives away quite a bit. I appreciated the concluding message: be careful not to let your unique abilities overshadow your relationships with family and friends. Is someone truly a friend if they only value you for what you can do? A relevant example from real life is Bobby Knieval, who achieved worldwide recognition as ‘Evel’ Knieval, the daring motorcycle stunt performer; his relatives reported that they “lost Bobby to Evel,” and fame brought about negative consequences like substance abuse, romantic entanglements, wealth, and arrogance. Fortunately, he later recognized this and attempted to make things right. Griffin has a memorable moment as the attractive girl, and it avoids being overly crude. The movie’s length is 1 hour & 31 minutes and was filmed entirely in Southern California: South Pasadena (neighborhood and town), Los Angeles (school), Montrose (bowling alley), and Tujunga (liquor store). The credits include a mention of “Friends in Fremont, Nebraska,” as the director visited there to spend three hours speaking with older adults for background information. Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman wrote the screenplay. Additional cast members include Matt Adler as the main character’s friend and Mark Arnold as his rival. Jay Tarses portrays the coach while James MacKrell appears as Mr. Thorne. GRADE: B-

Source on TMDB