Back in 2020, Leigh Whannell, gave us an updated version of The Invisable Man, that relied on more grounded elements to create the “creature”. This was not a mad scientist who drank a potion that made him invisible. No, this time around it was an abusive man that used advance technology to abuse and hunt his ex to destroy her life. The movie was a great spin on the Universal Monsters genre and gave the viewers some insight on the Universe that MGM was trying to create with their characters. Now with Wolf Man, Leigh again reimagines the world of Lupines and delivers a take that not only has heart but a few scares as well.
Before the movie begins we are told about a tale of a hiker that went missing and was never found. Tales of the hiker saw they were infected by something and have transformed into a “Man with wolf face”. The words on the screen linger for a few moments as to make sure you read them to know what you are about to see. Young Blake is awakened by his father and the two go out to hunt. During their walk the father (Sam Jaegar) tells Blake that he needs to be aware of his surroundings because at any second his life can end. The father is not saying these words to scare Blake but it is a warning of what is out in the forest.
As Blake attempts to track a deer, he sees an image in the woods of a man. When he tries to look for it again he cannot find it. Blake’s father catches up with him and tells them they need to hide right away. The two climb into a deer hut and you can hear the creature coming for them. Just like in The Invisiable Man, Leigh plays with the effect of seeing the creature’s breath so you know they are nearby. After surviving the attack, Blake stumbles upon hearing his father talking to someone on the radio about seeing the creature and stating that it needs to be killed for the safety of their children. The theme of fathers protecting their kids is one that is given a little heavy handed during the movie.
The movie jumps to the present where we see an adult Blake (Christopher Abbott) walking through downtown with his daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). In this moment we are shown the relationship between Blake and Ginger and see how he cares for her. Ginger does something that is a bit dangerous and Blake loses his cool and yells at her. He apologizes and asks her to read his mind and she says he is thinking about how much he loves her and will always protect her. As the movie plays along we see that this is their thing and Blake does this with her a few times.
The bond between Blake and his daughter is pretty strong. We see that it seems to be a little weak between the daughter and her mother, Charlotte (Julia Garner). Charlotte is a journalist and seems to be pretty busy a lot. We are shown this by her walking into the scene on her phone talking with her editor and is annoyed that Blake has to shush her when she sits at the dinner table with her phone. Blake gets a letter in the mail that his father has been officially declared dead and he is given the dad’s property. This leads to a family trip to see the home where he grew up.
The build up to the house is a slow burn. Blake feels lost going to his father’s house and runs into a childhood friend, (Benedict Hardie) on the road. He gives the family a cyptic message about being out at night and then the terror begins. Through a series of events the family ends up running to the house and once there we see that Blake was scratched on his arm by the thing that attacked them. Blake slowly begins changing into the creature that attacked him.
Here is where the genius of Whannell comes into play. Instead of having Blake completely turn into a werewolf and attack his family we see him slowly changing and trying to keep a grasp on the little humanity he has left. Through the use of practical effects we see how this sickness/infection transforms Blake’s appearance. Sidenote: If you saw the Wolf Man that made an appearance at the Haunted Halloween nights, take that image out of your head. This is not what the monster in this movie looks like. Being that this movie is grounded in folklore, Blake’s change is not as animalistic as previous iterations that we have seen.
Charlotte and Ginger attempt to survive the night while Blake is slowly transforming into a creature of the night. These are the scenes that we were waiting for and the moments are tense and sure to get your heart racing. As stated previously, we can see that Blake is doing all that he can to help his family before he goes full werewolf. This falls back to the interaction between him and Ginger in that he will do everything he can to protect her. This is where the heart of the movie stands out. Now that he is not going to be there for her, Charlotte must step into his role and protect Ginger.
Julia Garner does a fantastic job of not playing the scared damsel and showing what a determined mother can do for her kid. Like his previous movie, The Invisible Man, the female protagonist is strong, although they were not shown that way in their introduction. One grip with the movie is the whiny-child trope, where everyone can see there is something wrong with a character except for the child. The child cries that they want to be with their mother/father even though the parent just got done eating someone. Speaking of eating, there is one scene that is pretty cool and it has to do with chewing an arm. I will not say anymore.
Final Thoughts: Wolf Man is a fun new take on the werewolf genre that at times feels more like a family drama than a horror movie. The use of the father being infected pushes the trope of the father being the anchor of the family and doing all he can to protect his family, even when transforming into something else. With this modern take, Leigh Whannell should be in charge of all the Universal Monsters reboot.
Kid-Friendly: The movie has a great theme of relationships between parents and their children. There are a few jump scares and some intense bloody scenes so I will not recommend this to children under 13.
Violence: Wolf Man has some violent scenes between people and werewolves and werewolves on werewolves. There are bloodly limbs shown in some scenes and a scene involving an arm that is surreal.
A family at a remote farmhouse is attacked by an unseen animal, but as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognizable.