Wolf Man

Of all the Universal monsters, it seems the most successful is Dracula, or more specifically, vampires. Sure there have been some hits utilizing the other monsters: The Mummy in 1999, The Shape of Water in 2017, I would even count the subversive Poor Things in 2023. However the werewolf genre had a decent run in the 80’s with classics like An American Werewolf in London and The Howling but hardly anything else noteworthy since then, sure there are outlines such as Ginger Snaps, and the highly underrated Dog Soldiers. But I don’t count the Underworld movies, since the lycans in that series get an assist from the afore mentioned vamps.

After the colossal failure of the “Dark Universe” which was an attempt to revamp the Universal Monsters in a connected universe similar to the (at the time) successful Marvel Cinematic Universe. When it was brought down by a meh Dracula movie, and a terrible Mummy film where Tom Cruise and co. tried to make a Mission Impossible movie disguised as a monster movie. Although, interestingly enough Universal must have spent a ton on development back then since there is a Dark Universe section in their new Universal theme park, along side Harry Potter, Mario and Bowser. But I digress. Werewolves. Easily my favorite monster since I was a kid, and still is.

Enter Leigh Whannell who came on the scene with fellow filmmaker James Wan, together they gave us the first three Saw films, the first three Insidious films, as well as the kooky fun Dead Silence from 2007. More recently he has written and directed a pair of great films: Upgrade (2018) and The Invisible Man (2020) the last of which was a less ambitious relaunch of the Universal Monster Universe. Where they set the classic creatures in modern time in unconnected stories. And that film did an incredible job utilizing this over 100 year old character, so going into Whannell’s latest Wolf Man my expectations were high. Maybe too high.

Blake (Christopher Abbott) is a stay-at-home dad who spoils his kid Ginger (Matilda Firth). His journalist wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) is struggling at work and with their relationship. In an attempt to repair it Blake asks Charlotte and Ginger to go to Oregon with him to wrap up his fathers affairs after his death. Blake hasn’t been back to his childhood home in years after traumatic events pushed him away. Shortly after they arrive, the meet an old friend of Blake’s named Derek played by Benedict Hardie who offers to guide them to Blake’s fathers place. They don’t make it as something forces them off the road where after the crash Derek is taken by something in the night. As the thing chases Blake and his family to the house, they barricade themselves in hopes of escaping in the morning. Unfortunately Blake was scratched by the creature that is hunting them and he begins to slowly change. Now his wife and daughter have more to fear what is inside with them than what is outside.

Wolf Man written by Whannell and Corbett Tuck knows what it wants to do in its short run time. However there are several stumbling blocks along the way. For one we never buy the relationship between Blake and Charlotte as much as we do with his daughter Ginger, and even that is wafer thin. Second what appeared to be a slow transformation of Blake to a monster, specifically a wolf-type creature does not come together well either. There is surprising bits of gore, but I thought we were going to see a Rick Baker level transformation spread across the length of the film. Instead it comes in flashes, and while there are some really cool moments like his increased senses, and his “wolf-vision” which was the most effective parts of his painful change. It was not enough to make up for the final result which sometimes in the same scene teetered from unique to a homeless man/hobgoblin from a low-budget streaming horror flick. I understand that the focus should not be the monster, but the family man inside, it just never came across as something we should care about.

Also most of the attempts to ratchet up the tension fizzle out pretty quickly. Using typical horror troupes like a car not starting, being grabbed from below the frame, I was expecting more based on Whannell’s previous work. There is even a Jurassic Park like getaway from the monster as it swats at them from under a brightly lit plastic covered greenhouse as it slowly comes apart. I didn’t at any point worry about the safety of the wife and daughter, their ending was pretty much telegraphed at the opening moments of the film.

Again I will fully admit that my expectations going in were a tad too high, but I know good horror when I see it. Wolf Man tries hard, but just doesn’t go full beast mode which is unfortunate as it doesn’t live up to the all too rare classics that came before it.