By George & Josh Bate
From Dracula starring Bela Lugosi to The Mummy starring Boris Karloff to The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr., the Universal Monsters have remained seminal and iconic fixtures of horror cinema decades after their debuts. Numerous attempts have tried to replicate the success of the 1930s and 1940s classics over the years, although only a select few have truly transformed the source material into something vastly different yet similarly effective. That’s exactly what Leigh Whannell did with The Invisible Man in 2020. Rather than trying to establish some doomed from the start cinematic universe or craft a dry play-by-play remake of the 1933 classic, Whannell plummeted The Invisible Man into the 21st century with a timely twist that took disturbing topics of intimate partner violence and psychological abuse to unseen (literally and figuratively) territory. Naturally, Whannell’s success with one Universal Monster made him the perfect choice to breathe new life into another. And, several years on from The Invisible Man, Whannell returns with his version of Wolf Man.
Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott (First Man, Poor Things) as Blake, a family man who brings his wife (played by Ozark’s Julia Garner) and daughter (played by Matilda Firth) from San Francisco to the forests of Oregon, where he grew up. While just settling into their new surroundings, Blake’s family is attacked by a werewolf on a fateful night that changes everything for them.
Like he did with The Invisible Man, Whannell attempts to create something decidedly different from previous adaptations of the source material at his disposal. Unlike The Invisible Man though, Wolf Man has been the subject of a seemingly endless stream of derivatives, so much so that werewolf horror is widely known as a bonafide subgenre of horror. With classics in the subgenre like the original 1941 The Wolf Man and 1981’s An American Werewolf in London coming before him, Whannell takes on a different challenge with Wolf Man than he did with The Invisible Man, one that results in a suspenseful and contained horror movie that reworks the werewolf subgenre in a number of ways and attempts, but doesn’t entirely succeed, in its exploration of deeper themes and commentary.
The film begins excellently, with on-screen text explaining sightings of a wolf man in the Pacific Northwest appearing before an extended introduction involving Blake’s father and Blake as a young boy encountering the wolf man for the first time. This introduction is intense and suspenseful, as one would expect from the beginning of a horror film, but it particularly stands out with intelligent shot design and dynamic camera movements that continue to feature throughout the subsequent film. Whannell flexed these muscles in The Invisible Man and his previous effort Upgrade, often elevating otherwise standard scenes to new heights with deft usage of the camera and intelligent insight into the effects of subtle, yet purposeful, camera movement on the audience. Later gripes with the unfolding of the story aside, Wolf Man is an undoubtedly sharply directed movie, helmed by a filmmaker who doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his innovation behind the lens.
As the film settles in beyond its introduction, Wolf Man features a fantastic set-up for a horror movie and one that feels unique for a werewolf film. Quickly relocating from the skyscrapers and busy streets of San Francisco to the atmospheric Pacific Northwest, Whannell’s film captures an eerie atmosphere akin to other horror stories set in this region of the U.S., including Twin Peaks from the late David Lynch. The valleys are sprawling, a light mist of fog covers all, and the scenery is picturesque as Blake and his family journey to where Blake grew up. The family are given no time to settle in, however. A series of unfortunate events occur almost immediately upon arriving to the wilderness and isolation of Oregon that result in the family being locked inside Blake’s old family home as a dangerous creature lurks outside. This set-up isn’t particularly novel, but is executed well with strong acting and, again, great directing from Whannell. Where things become unique with Wolf Man is the existence of a threat both outside AND inside the house. It’s one thing to be locked inside while something dangerous is outside your home, but what if there’s an additional threat that arises inside the house, rendering both outside and inside unsafe. The audience has an idea of these dual threats before the characters do, as the writing is on the wall that the scratch Blake received from the werewolf before secluding in the house will actually lead him to turning into a werewolf. But knowing this creates a chilling intensity and sense of suspense for a family we’ve quickly grown to care for.
In addition to its capitalization on the eerie Pacific Northwest atmosphere and the reveal of these dual threats to the family, Wolf Man’s set-up further impresses in restricting the story to a contained setting and having the film unfold entirely over the course of one fateful night. There’s something about contained horror movies that simultaneously add an additional flavor of terror and a disquieting coziness to proceedings, and Wolf Man is no exception in this regard.
Adding further substance to the strong set up for Wolf Man is the authenticity and warmth to the family at the heart of the story. As an adult, Christopher Abbott’s Blake is introduced as the perfect father. He’s kind and sweet to his daughter, carrying around a massive pink bear for his princess dress-wearing daughter and letting her apply lipstick to him for fun. More strained is the relationship between Blake and his wife Charlotte (played by Julia Garner). Charlotte is a journalist, whose career is demanding, and struggles with the sense that her daughter is closer to her father than with her. With brisk timing, the film establishes a family we genuinely care for, in large part because the family feels so real and well-intentioned. Blake, in particular, makes for such a likable lead that investment in his story is immediate and what unfolds is cruelly tragic. Abbott is phenomenal as Blake and proves yet again that he should be a far bigger star than he is currently. The largely indie film actor has had roles in the likes of It Comes at Night, The Crowded Room, and Poor Things, and seems right on the cusp of exponential attention worthy of his incredible talent in front of the camera.
After such a strong first act, Wolf Man somewhat loses its tight grip on the audience, despite plenty of admirable qualities still on display. Unlike other werewolf films that feature lead characters’ quick transformations from man to beast, Whannell’s film deliberately takes its time in this regard. Also forgoing the full moon trope of werewolf flicks, Whannell emphasizes the body horror of a Wolf Man movie perhaps more than any other version of this story to date. Blake and, in turn, the audience, slowly experience a range of sensory and physical changes that precipitate becoming a werewolf. A particularly effective scene has Blake and the audience hear booming rumbling sounds, only to track the source of the sounds down and discover that they’re coming from a spider crawling up the wall. But, as Blake’s senses are changing and becoming more wolf-life, something so quiet as a spider crawling for a human is actually immensely loud and disruptive.
This emphasizes another strong and unique element of Wolf Man – the adoption of Blake’s perspective as he changes into a wolf man, thus creating a more immersive Wolf Man movie than we’re used to. The film frequently features scenes in which the perspective deftly changes from Garner’s Charlotte and their daughter’s normal view of the world to Blake’s changing view of the world, characterized by brighter lights, mumbled voices, trouble understanding and producing human language, and general disorientation. These scenes are excellently done and highlight just how terrifying the transformation from man to werewolf is. Although by the time Wolf Man concludes there isn’t much to pinpoint as being particularly novel or groundbreaking, the immersive scenes adopting Blake’s perspective of viewing the world as he becomes a wolf man standout as the most memorable moments.
With the intentionally slower transformation from man to monster, Wolf Man unfortunately misses out on making the most of one of its most promising narrative components. The aforementioned dual threats of a wolf creature outside the house AND a wolf creature emerging inside the house sounds like the epitome of terror. And yet, due to the slower transformation of Blake into a wolf man, the movie fails to portray these threats as occurring concurrently. In other terms, real terror would have come from having these wolf men simultaneously pose threats, but that isn’t the case as there is no overlap of the threats they pose during the runtime. Nonetheless, the existence of two wolf men within the film makes for some added excitement and well-choreographed, animalistic fight sequences.
Whannell previously combined excellently crafted scares with disturbing social commentary in The Invisible Man, and attempts to do something similar in Wolf Man, albeit with decidedly less effectiveness. Fundamentally, Wolf Man is a story of fatherhood in the same manner as The Invisible Man was a story of domestic abuse. Wolf Man begins with a flashback showing Blake’s tough father eliciting fear in Blake and then transitions thirty years later to show the kind of warm father Blake has become to his own child and his proactive efforts to not elicit this sort of fear in his daughter. But what happens when such a good father who loves his daughter unconditionally and who does not want to scare her like his father scared him becomes a monster? Whannell plays on the psychological horror of this situation as much as the literal horror of this situation, although never with the gut-punch discomfort that came with The Invisible Man’s blend of psychological and physical horror couched within broader social commentary. One can tell there is potential for great messaging / commentary about fatherhood here. Unfortunately, it never quite solidifies into something of substance and particular emotional resonance. This issue is amplified by the end of the second act, which perplexingly pivots toward Charlotte’s perspective more so, putting Blake in the background as a result. At that point, Wolf Man becomes more of a traditional survival picture, instead of the kind of introspective tale of worst case scenario, catastrophic fatherhood that it was building up to be.
VERDICT: 7/10
Leigh Whannell follows the excellent The Invisible Man by taking on another Universal Monster classic and providing his spin on Wolf Man, which features similarly strong filmmaking yet lacks the powerful commentary and themes of Whannell’s previous effort. Intelligent shot design and dynamic camera movements contribute to a well-directed horror movie with an abundance of suspense, intensity, and light scares. A brilliant first act establishes a family for the audience to care for, an atmospheric and contained setting, and a novel horror movie premise, although the film becomes less enthralling from its second act onward. The film finds particular novelty though in showing the slow progression of a man into werewolf / wolf man through a series of body-horror scenes that depicts the kinds of terrifying sensory and physical changes our lead is going through, a filmmaking element that proves to be the movie’s most memorable. The theme of fatherhood runs strongly from beginning to end and has the potential to evoke some powerful emotions; unfortunately, messaging around this theme never fully comes together. The same can be said for the actualization of the film’s superb first act horror movie set up, with so much potential for a groundbreaking werewolf movie reduced to what is ultimately a serviceable werewolf movie. Wolf Man may not be the crowning achievement that The Invisible Man was, but there is plenty of strong filmmaking, solid scares, and emotional character work on display to make it a howl of a time at the movies.