Blake and his family are attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside a farmhouse as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable that soon jeopardizes his wife and daughter.
Director: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, Sam Jaeger
Release Date: January 17, 2025
Genre: Horror
Rated R for bloody violent content, grisly images and some language.
Runtime: 1h 43m
Review:
Leigh Whannell's first go around reimaging one of the classic Universal Monsters was a pleasant surprise in the form of 2020's The Invisible Man. Whannell's second attempt, Wolf Man, similarly tries to bring a different slant to the basic story but with far clunkier, underwhelming results. Using elements of The Shining throughout he manages to deliver a handful of well-constructed scares as we follow Christopher Abbott's transformation in the titular Wolf Man while he and his family are being stalked by another beast. There's a breakneck pace to the film that’s in such a hurry to get to the gory scares that it never bothers to give the central characters much time to get fleshed out which leaves us with the most generic married couple going through issues. The audience is only given the slightest hint about what sort of martial issues Christopher Abbott's Blake and Julia Garner's Charlotte are going through before things quickly spiral out of control. It doesn't help that the film is peppered with incredibly clunky dialogue that lacks any sort of subtly about the themes at play. Additionally, this is the kind of horror film where people continue to make increasingly stupid decisions that don't make much sense. An interesting werewolf POV, sort of like a Predator view, is played with but never really explored enough to make much of an impact. Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner are both strong performers but they're noticeably flat for the most part since the film doesn't really ask for much outside of terrified reaction shots. Abbott is given the short end of the stick as his character slowly disappears under layers of practical make-up, which looks gross but not very wolfy, that leaves him practically mute, leaving him to rely on his physical performance. Julia Garner is left carrying the lion’s share of the action, delivering an admirable job that leaves you wishing she'd been given a meatier role. Once it’s all said and done, Wolf Man, proves to be little more than a bit of disposable January horror that toys with some interesting concepts but doesn't fully explore or take advantage of them.
C
