Wolf Man (dir. Leigh Whannell)

By: Adam Freed

Set against the stunning backdrop of Oregon’s rugged forest terrain is director Leigh Whannell’s reimagining of the classic Universal monster tale Wolf Man.   Unlike the classic The Wolf Man (1941), Whannell (Invisible Man) places an emphasis on the juxtaposition between nature’s endless allure and the primitive dangers that lurk within. Whannell’s film, which he pens with the help of first time writer Corbett Tuck, unveils a shockingly small story given the majestic environs in which the recycled horror film takes place.  Blumhouse and Universal collaborate on the attempt to revitalize the once meaningful genre, a partnership that falls disappointingly flat when weighed against the monstrous power of its potential.  

Wolf Man opens with a captivating scene in which a militaristic father and his dutiful young son take to the woodlands of the Pacific Northwest on an exploratory hunting trip, part male bonding, part survivalist necessity.  This memorable opening act offers a great deal of promise from its inspired cinematography to the thematic relevance for which it sets the groundwork.  From this point on, however, whatever mystery and magic Wolf Man teases, it confoundedly fails to deliver upon as the film makes a jump 30 years into the future.  The boy, Blake, is now a father himself, played forgettably by Christopher Abbott (Poor Things), who must reconcile domestic turbulence and the pressing weight of his father’s mysterious disappearance three decades ago.   Sadly, there is no discernible mystery to Blake’s backstory, rendering Wolf Man equal parts predictable and underwhelming.  Blake’s workaholic journalist wife Charlotte is notably played by Julia Garner (Ozark), a proven actor capable of far greater range than is allowed for her underwritten and static protagonist.  

In a story with origins so deeply rooted in transformation mythology what is most shocking about Wolf Man is just how stunningly stoic Charlotte and her daughter Ginger remain in witnessing the brutal evolution of events around them.  Even the film’s greatest revelations, all inexcusably betrayed by its marketing campaign, draw confoundingly muted responses from the mother daughter team who methodically come to the conclusion that survival is their only priority.   Monster films are historically littered with naïve characters whose failure to flee or properly defend themselves has resulted in catastrophic results, and Wolf Man is no exception to this lineage.  Leigh Whannell was able to overdeliver with his thematically captivating Invisible Man (2020), but here saddles audiences with a story content on leaning into the gory and gruesome rather than striving for the unexpected. In a strange way, those who sit through Wolf Man may themselves feel they have undergone a change, as quite a bit of the werewolf mythology is noticeably absent.  Nary is there a mention of full moons or silver bullets, instead leaving audiences to their own devices as to surmise the origins or outcomes of the “mountain illness” outlined only glancingly. There are a plethora of very recent films that prove horrifying entertainment can be beautiful to behold as well as intellectually stimulating, two truths Wolf Man seems to have chosen to ignore.

Target Score 3.5/10 -  Blumhouse and Universal start the new year off with an all bark and no bite retread of a World War II era monster classic. Despite some impressively inspired practical makeup effects, Wolf Man isn’t likely to claw its way into the hearts of even the most devout of monster horror fanatics.