Wolf Man (Review)
It feels like a completely different time when Braden and I saw The Invisible Man back in 2020. It will always be a vivid memory because it was the last thing I saw in theaters before we hit the peak of the COVID pandemic, where everything was shut down for the foreseeable future (if we didn’t go see that, my last theater experience would’ve been 2020’s The Grudge…). Not only that, but we were floored by the time the movie ended. It’s not a perfect movie by any means, but Leigh Whannell’s reimagining of the classic movie monster was such a refreshing take, mixing the classic monster with current world themes so well. It made the “monster” menacing, managed to be anxiety inducing, scary, and brought out an incredible performance from Elisabeth Moss. So five years later with Wolf Man, I was really excited for what he had in store for us again.
Unfortunately, Whannell’s Wolf Man didn’t deliver as I had hoped. This is one of those frustrating movies where you can feel there’s a banger underneath, but for whatever reason just isn’t fully realized. What we get instead is an underwhelming experience, but with some really cool moments and great effects.
The movie centers on Blake (Christopher Abbott), an unemployed writer and very loving husband and father. He has long moved on from his previous secluded hunting life he had with his military-style father, but when he learns that his father has been officially declared dead, Blake decides to bring his family with him to his old home to grab some of his belongings. But this is a monster movie after all, and that’s all just reason for Blake and his family to get attacked by an animal that also looks human (get it?), forcing them to hide out in Blake’s old home. The monster outside may not be the only one they have to deal with, however, as Blake and the family discover that a certain scratch from the beast may have more dire consequences than they expected.
I feel like, for me, Wolf Man can be summed up by this: really, really cool ideas but with execution that just isn’t able to live up to it. Having Blake and his family trapped in his house by a wolf man, while he himself is turning into a monster, is awesome. Whannell and the crew are largely focused on the transformation and how devastating it is not only for Blake to learn he’s becoming a danger, but also to his family who are slowly coming to this realization. The tale of the wolf man has always been steeped in tragedy among its many stories over the years, but Whannell and co-writer Corbett Tuck manage to find a new way to keep that going.
Unfortunately everything around that just falls flat to me. There’s not much to any of the characters here besides Blake. His wife Charlotte (played by Julia Garner) doesn’t really have much to do here besides look scared and ask what’s going on. It feels like the movie tried to add more to her by having her be more career-focused than Blake, but that’s thrown away pretty quickly. Same goes for the daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth), who comes off as cliche movie daughter #3. This isn’t a complaint about the actors here, they all do a great job. It just sucks they’re given so little to do, especially when the ball starts rolling.
I say that, but it’s more like the ball got pushed by a pinky finger. There’s a great opening, and the moment when the family gets attacked is intense. But once the family gets to the house, things grind to a halt. There’s a lot of repeated scenes of the wolf man outside scaring the family (but never actually doing anything), Blake undergoing another transformation to his body, and the wife and daughter reacting to it. This happens until the movie reaches its underwhelming end that you could see coming a mile away (those looking for werewolf action a la 2010’s The Wolfman, this is not that kind of movie). Maybe the worst part is that the movie never scared me.
It’s not all bad though. There are some great moments here, mostly involving Blake’s transformation. Whannell himself said he took inspiration from Carpenter’s The Thing and Cronenberg’s The Fly, and that’s very apparent here. While they are sparse, there are some gross out moments that are sure to please fans of body-horror. That’s aided by practical effects that I will always give praise to. Whannell also does a really effective job of putting you into the POV of Blake as he is transforming that involves a great mix of camera work and sound effects. They used this one too many times, but they were still really cool, and may have been my favorite part of the movie.
In the end, Wolf Man isn’t as bad as most throwaway horror movies that are usually released in January, but it doesn’t reach the highs of his other projects like Invisible Man. I feel like it had all the ingredients to be another good one, but just came up short on a lot. That feels more frustrating than seeing something that is just straight up bad.
