WOLF MAN - Mark Reviews Movies

Wolf Man, Universal Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 16, 2025

Like he did with the Invisible Man, co-writer/director Leigh Whannel takes another classic movie monster and attempts to place it in a story that's relatively grounded and believable. Here, it's the Wolf Man getting that treatment, of course, in Wolf Man, which comes up with some unique ideas about the eponymous monster but overlooks its characters in the process. Without the latter element, those novel conceits don't mean much.

The basic premise has Whannell and co-screenwriter Corbett Tuck (the director's wife) presenting an ordinary man—a doting father and loving husband in this case—and watching as he gradually transforms into a beast. There's nothing new there, of course, because that's basically the setup of 1941's The Wolf Man and all the stories it inspired (as well as the older ones that inspired it).

What's interesting, perhaps, is Whannell and Tuck forgo any sort of mythology or folklore in presenting this creature. No one speaks of full moons or, as was the case in the '41 film, wolfsbane. There are no curses, discussions of fate, or ill omens spoken by some Romani character. In this version, the werewolf simply exists and has existed in the woods of remote Oregon for centuries, presumably, when the indigenous people of the region spoke of a strange creature that appeared as both wolf and man, dubbing it "the Face of the Wolf."

That's the only exposition we receive to the lore here, presented in a block of text at the top of the movie before meeting Blake (Christopher Abbott). He's a city guy, living in an apartment with his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth), and currently a full-time dad, since his writing career has stalled while Charlotte's job as a journalist has thrived.

The screenplay seems hesitant to give us much more to the characters or their relationships, lest we take Blake's now-inevitable transformation, perhaps, as some kind of allegory about what can lie within someone or the duality of human nature. Blake is frustrated, for example, when Ginger doesn't listen to him while the two walk through the city and when Charlotte has a business conversation on the phone in front of her family. All of that, though, is quickly dismissed, as are the subtle hints that Blake might feel unfulfilled in his current situation. In trying to make these characters as neutral as possible before the plot proper starts, Whannell and Tuck have made them quite bland.

Most of the story is set in and around a cabin in the forests of Oregon, where Blake grew up with his father (played by Sam Jaeger), a hardened outdoorsman. In a fairly lengthy prologue, dad tells his young son (played by Zac Chandler) that everyone dies and that the boy had better learn to fend for himself.

The introductory sequence has father and son on a hunting trip, before the two suspect that someone—or something—might be hunting them. Whannell's use of sound is notable here and, for that matter and in a different way, later, as the two take cover in a hunting blind, hear twigs cracking in the distance, and note low growls getting closer. We don't get a good look at the werewolf stalking them yet, but its hot breath, rising above the low walls of the shelter at different positions, is a subtle but striking bit of imagery.

The adult Blake's tale is set 30 years later, after his missing father is officially declared dead by the state. Blake thinks it would be a good idea for his family to get away to his newly inherited cabin for a bit, and Charlotte agrees because she has to for the story to proceed. Almost immediately upon the family's arrival, Blake spots a man-sized thing in the road, swerves to avoid hitting it, and sends the moving truck over a cliff and atop some trees. Now, his family is being hunted by the werewolf, so they take shelter in the cabin.

That's the foundation of the plot, with the added complication that the werewolf might have scratched Blake in the process of escaping it. He begins to turn, leaving him to wrestle with newfound animal instincts inside his still-human body and mind, as Charlotte has to contend with an obvious threat outside the cabin (that conveniently disappears for a stretch) and a potential one inside.

The main issue here might be one of perspective. Whannell is clearly fascinated by the concept of an ordinary person becoming something monstrous, leading to some of the movie's more intriguing conceits and visuals. They take the form of something akin to "wolf vision," in which we see and hear the world from the transforming Blake's point of view. The most compelling notion within that gimmick is how it becomes a mental prison, with Blake unable to understand his loved ones and his words, plainly spoken in his mind, being incomprehensible in reality.

At a certain point, though, Blake's perspective is less important to the story than Charlotte's, but since the characters of Wolf Man seem less than a secondary thought to the filmmakers, the movie's ultimate confrontation is hollow. The whole movie—a series of gimmicks, suspense sequences, and showcases for assorted makeup effects—feels that way, too.

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