Movies, Films & Flix

Grade – C (or three full moons out of five)

Back in 2020, Leigh Whannell turned down the Wolf Man directorial gig because after the success of The Invisible Man, tackling another beloved Universal Monster project seemed daunting and he didn’t have any idea how to transport the iconic werewolf into the 21st century. The folks at Blumhouse wouldn’t take no for an answer and they talked Whannell into helming the remake after giving him some time to figure out the themes that would motivate him to commit years of his life to writing sessions, sleepless nights and long days on set. The end result is a clunky horror remake that tells the story from the dual perspectives of the husband and wife who are dealing with lycanthropy shenanigans.

In an interview with Syfy, Whannell explained that he co-wrote the film with his wife Corbett Tuck during the pandemic and they packed it full of the endless amount of feelings that came from the isolation and anxiety that the pandemic created. They also were inspired by one of their close friends’ battle with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which saw her lose her mobility and ability to communicate. On top of all of these elements, they tossed in an unstable marriage, generational trauma, and parenting fears that add too many ingredients into the Wolf Man soup. 

While watching Wolf Man, I missed the simplicity of Upgrade and The Invisible Man, which focused on dangerous technology ruining people’s lives. Their straightforward and wildly violent narratives focused their stories and gave them a narrative cohesion that never felt clunky. At their core, the Wolfman films tackle familial issues such as bad dads, dead brothers, and ancestral homes, so the decisions Whannell makes are sound. However, all of the themes never gel and there isn’t enough time for actors Christopher Abbot, Julia Garner and Matilda Firth to find their characters.

Because it’s a low-budget Blumhouse film, there’s a prologue that explains Whannell’s version of lycanthropy. Basically, it’s a sickness that Native Americans refer to as “The Face of the Wolf.” The early heaving lifting of the prologue works to get rid of superstitious locals who would only add expenses and shooting days to the film. After an opening featuring a young boy and his father coming across the titular monster, the film jumps a couple decades ahead to focus on Jake (Christopher Abbot), the young kid from the beginning who is all grown up with a wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth). After dealing with a terrible dad, Jake has embraced the father role and has a close relationship with his daughter Ginger. He doesn’t want to make the same mistakes that his father made, so he comes across as overly protective (even though the overly protective example provided in the movie is justified) when his daughter tries to exert her freedom. His journalist wife Charlotte is the main breadwinner for the family and her long hours at work make her feel alienated from her daughter and husband (themes that are never fully explored), who spend a lot of time together in her absence. 

Similarly to the original films in which the death of a family member brings everyone back home, Jake gets a letter informing him that his father has finally been declared deceased after he disappeared into the woods several years prior. Together, they rent a moving truck and drive to Oregon to pack up the belongings inside the remote home. Before they get to the house, they are attacked by a creature who injures Jake and kills his childhood friend Derek (Benedict Hardie – who never fairs well in Whannell films). While the creature is busy ripping Derek apart, the family barricade themselves in Jake’s home where they have a humdinger of a bad night. Instead of timing the film’s events through lunar cycles, the 2025 iteration compacts everything into one night that sees Jake transforming into a brundlewolf.

There are some elements to like such as the “werewolf vision” and Christopher Abbot’s dedication to being covered with a progression of excellent werewolf makeup/prosthetics. However, something got lost during the production process which make it feel like not enough coverage was shot or it was edited into oblivion to get it under two hours. There is a lot of “telling” in Wolf Man, which makes everything seem too on the nose and spelled out. In an interview with ScreenRant, Whannell admitted that the film’s long gestation was a bit worrying because he was scared that it would kill his creative spirit because he was used to the insane schedules for movies like Saw, Upgrade, and Insidious. The long creative process helped him with the technical issues that come with shooting a $25 million budgeted horror film in the forests of New Zealand, but there’s definitely a missing creative spark. In the end, Wolf Man feels like Whannell had too much time to think and the end result is a bit of a cluttered mess.