Wolf Man (2025) is the latest attempt to milk Wolf Man (1941) after Wolfman (2010). Originally, this latest incarnation of Wolf Man was supposed to be part of the Dark Universe, which was to be established with The Mummy (2017).
When that didn’t work out, Blumhouse picked up the pieces and started their own spin on the Universal Monsters with The Invisible Man (2020).
The Invisible Man was neat in theory, but its two-hour runtime produced pacing problems. Plus, the thought of a wealthy tech bro obsessed with Elizabeth Moss is more far-fetched than solving the mystery of invisibility.
Does Wolf Man succumb to similar problems or manage to be a howling good time? Let’s find out. No real spoilers will be given…
The Wolf Man
Wolf Man is written and directed by Leigh Whannell. Whannell wrote Saw films and Insidious films, along with writing and directing the well-regarded Upgrade. Whannell also helmed the aforementioned The Invisible Man.
Like he did with The Invisible Man, Whannell has a slightly different take on Wolf Man. It takes inspiration from virus films and siege films. No rules like full moons and silver bullets exist with this form of lycanthropy. It is an infection, which leads to a situation similar to The Fly. The beast gradually eclipses the man.
Be moderately afraid. Be very moderately afraid…
Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott in the title role. Abbott recently appeared in Kraven the Hunter. For this, we at The Last Movie Outpost, offer him our condolences. Abbott is fine in the role of a father who is bitten by a werewolf and has to resist the resulting urges.
Since Abbott loses the ability to communicate, most of his resistance amounts to sulking around a house with his lower jaw stuck out and growling. The most interesting part about his metamorphosis is how his point of view of the world changes.
The Wolf Ladies
Julie Garner (Ozark) plays Abbott’s wife. While Abbott is a house-husband, Garner is the family breadwinner. Fortunately, none of that is played up in any overt way. The situation simply exists, and when Garner shows the ability to jumpstart a car with nary a squeal or care about her nails, the viewer simply goes with it.
Since a child is involved with the story, a lot can depend on how the character is written. Is Matilda Firth believable, annoyingly wizen, or just plain annoying in the role? She is present. The dialogue between her and Abbott is a bit too saccharine. Whannell definitely could have taken that down a notch. Most father/daughter duos don’t average an “I love you” every ten minutes.
It gets to the point where the viewer knows they are being manipulated into caring, rather than growing to care about the characters fates through believable characterization.
The Wolf of Wall Street Man
Wolf Man story is quite simple. Abbott, Garner, and Firth end up at an isolated house in the Oregon woods. A werewolf lurks outside. Abbott is scratched and starts to wolf out. Garner and Firth are caught in the middle. This kind of stripped-down scenario can work fine if the story hits the appropriate amount of beats, but Wolf Man has nothing to build on.
Since Wolf Man basically works from a three-person cast, no victim dynamic exists. That means there are no cannon-fodder characters to put in suspenseful situations and eliminate one by one to serve as a body-count countdown to keep the film on pace.
The movie simply presents a situation, and the viewer is left to wait out the inevitable conclusion.
The look of Wolf Man makeup leaked late last year and garnered derision. Is that how the beastie looked in the finished product? Pretty much.
The final manifestation of the werewolf makeup harkens back to the original 1941 look with a dash of alopecia. Within the context of the story, this works. The Howling, An American Werewolf In London, and Dog Soldiers told stories suited for fully lupine forms. Since Wolf Man is a more intimate story about the nature of man, a more human werewolf design works well.
The Wolf Man On Fire
A half-hearted attempt at subtext is made with Wolf Man. One could look at the story as a father’s fear of scarring their child with their character flaws. None of that is strong enough to wow the viewer, however, and make them feel like they are watching a movie with something to say.
How does Wolf Man work as a horror movie? Nothing earth-shattering there either.
This is too bad, as Wolf Man does have some things going in its favor.
It has a reasonable budget, and its take on lycanthropy is unique enough to present the promise of an interesting movie. The problem is that absolutely nothing about the movie pops. The characters don’t pop. The performances don’t pop. The action doesn’t pop. The suspense doesn’t pop. The werewolf stuff doesn’t pop.
When it comes to recent horror films, Wolf Man is not as odd as something like Longlegs. It is not as interesting as something like Heretic. The movie is not as goofy as Abigail. It’s about like Nosferatu. It lacks the artiness of that film, but it has the same feeling of malaise in the end.
Sorry, Wolf Man doesn’t have nards…
