WOLFEN's tour of a post-apocalypse, 1981 New York

Wolfen is a fun, twisted little werewolf picture featuring Albert Finney and Edward James Olmos, both looking younger than you can believe they ever were. (Click the image at left to buy Wolfen on DVD.) But one of the film's most chilling aspects has nothing to do with wolfmen.

By the early '80s, the South Bronx had fallen into a disrepair so total and so terrible that it resembled a grim sci-fi landscape, it literally looked like an atom bomb had gone off there. Abandoned buildings rotted and caved in on themselves, piles of rubble and garbage were everywhere and entire blocks were eerily devoid of life save for the rats gnawing on whatever they could find. Wolfen shot some unforgettable scenes on those streets, and Youtube user Izakokomarixyz has compiled them into the clip below.

Looking at these scenes now, it's hard to believe this is really the United States we're seeing, that this is New York. Things can get this bad in other countries, after years of war. But not here.

But here it is 2009, and after decades of booming business, New York, like the rest of America, is now teetering on the brink of ruin once again. The economy has gotten so bad that there are plans to bulldoze entire blocks in cities like Baltimore and Detroit and move the locals into smaller areas to conserve the dwindling resources. These Wolfen scenes aren't just a quaint historical curio. This could be our urban tomorrow. (Well, other than the werewolves, of course... At least, let's hope without the werewolves.)



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