By Seb Jenkins - January 17, 2025
Leigh Whannell’s reboot of the 1941 gothic horror The Wolf Man feels more than slither short of a full moon.
Reboots are so often worse than the originals that inspire them, and unfortunately, Wolf Man will not be added to the collection of exceptions that prove the rule. Leigh Whannell remains one of the horror-writing greats with the likes of Saw, Insidious, and The Invisible Man on his resume. Saw shocked the horror world, Insidious had us hiding behind sofas, and The Invisible Man was a master in hidden tension – unfortunately, Wolf Man does not compete for either crown. What we are left with is a character Universal Studios seemed determined to resurrect, only to strap Wolf Man’s snarling teeth with a muzzle.
Brought up in the shadow of his emotionally distant father (Sam Jaeger), Blake (Christopher Abbott) moved away from the isolated forests of Oregon as soon as he was old enough. Fast forward 20 years, Blake receives word that his father has been officially pronounced dead after a long period of ‘missing and presumed’ status. Burdened with the haunted task of returning home to pack up his old man’s belongings, Blake invites his workaholic wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and their young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) along for the ride. Painted as a getaway to the beautiful outdoors, the howling family reunion transforms into anything but.
The most disappointing thing about Wolf Man (2025) is that it actually starts out with a lot of promise. In terms of a horror prologue, it ticks all the boxes. Interesting and creepy lore, check! In 1995, a hiker vanished in the remote mountains of Oregon, with many believing he was infected by the mysterious ‘face of the wolf’ virus. Scene setting, check!
An initial flashback introduces us to a younger version of Blake who, while out hunting with his father, encounters the Wolf Man in all but sight. Monster tension, check! Whannell uses the classic tension-brewing technique of hinting at the monster without ever showing it on screen, and he does it expertly. Unfortunately, when we jump forward in time, we also leave all that promise and tension behind.
Inevitably, once the Oregon woodlands embrace Blake and his family like old friends, it doesn’t take long for old Wolfy to turn up and start wreaking havoc. A howl howl here and a bite bite there – Blake’s childhood home could even pass as Old MacDonald’s Farm. Wolf Man threatens to kick up a gear when, in an attempt to fight off the monster, Blake gets infected and slowly starts to turn into the very thing he is protecting his family from. Sadly, despite the presence of three-inch claws, the rest of the scratches feel pretty surface-level. Julia Garner – always an on-screen firework – feels restricted to a series of gasps and screams, and although Christopher Abbott’s tortured transformation from man to wolf is acted superbly, it feels drawn out and dull. All that, and the eventual plot twist of the movie shines obviously through as if held under the intense light of a full moon.
The unfortunate truth is that Wolf Man is a story we have seen time and time again. It feels more like a zombie infection story from the 2010s than it does a revival of the big-screen werewolf – and that is a shame. You can’t help but leave the cinema wishing they
would have simplified things just a little. A party of ten people trapped in the woods, each getting killed off one by one in increasingly unique and gruesome ways by the terror-inducing Wolf Man. Contrived perhaps, but at least Whannell and Co wouldn’t have had to pull any punches – or bites, or scratches.
Wolf Man had an interesting premise and a mouth-watering leading duo but ultimately failed to expand or enhance the werewolf genre.
Out now in cinemas
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