Wolf Man is a disappointing reboot of the 1941 lycanthrope horror The Wolfman starring Lon Chaney Jr, struggling to build momentum despite a promising prologue. After an estranged father leaves his Oregon farm to his son, family man Blake (Christopher Abbott) relocates his fractured family, only to find he must contend with a supernatural force threatening all he holds dear. Despite some serviceable performances and the odd practical effect, Leigh Whannell’s ‘Universal Monsters’ follow-on from The Invisible Man features murky lighting, poor VFX, muddled themes, and frustratingly predictable plotting.
A compelling and eerie prologue sets the stage in the forests of Oregon, where Blakes’s father Grady (Sam Jaeger) is teaching the boy how to hunt. He muses on the nature of life, the machismo his son needs to possess, and the survival skills he needs to contest the mythical “Face of the Wolf’ - as referred to by Native Americans. The suspenseful opening locates itself in a boundless forest full of ghostly fog, flashing a monster just obsured from view. Grady is a harsh and brutal father, something Blake doesn’t imbue in his parenting methods when the film jumps forward three decades to him living with wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) in a major city.
Charlotte is a workaholic, struggling to find time away from her job as a frantic journalist. Blake is an uninspired author and stay-at-home super dad, while Ginger is another trademark ‘precocious’ child. Their marriage starts to fail, and Ginger gets sick of their arguments. When given the news that his father has been legally declared dead, Blake believes relocating the entire family to Grady’s farmhouse will solve all his marital and family problems.
The film has some tense and well-executed moments, even if the overall experience feels muted. A monstrous wolf ambushes the family before they even get in the front gate. Their moving van crashes between multiple standing trees; the craft of that sequence is a particular highlight of the film as the family strategically figures out how to get to safety and away from the creature. Once Blake reveals that the wolf has infected him during the hastened struggle into the home, their nuclear family’s dream becomes a lupine-infested nightmare.
Leigh Whannell, who co-wrote the film with his wife Corbett Tuck, shoehorns in a tired and unoriginal take on generational trauma, adding very few ‘fresh’ ideas to a film marketed as an evolution of the genre. While as a monster movie, it is passable, the third act reveal is so apparent and signposted as the bright, full moon that the drama becomes completely shallow. Whannell’s script dreadfully let down the enticing premise - while it’s fun to watch the gratuitous moments of eating one’s limbs and claws forming out of ripped-off fingernails, he gives the audience little reason to care.
Christopher Abbott is very convincing at selling his mental and physical conflict, as is Julia Garner at being productive and quick to respond. Still, the script never delves deeper into the nuances of this family before the prosthetics start bulging, the hairs start growing, and the blood starts splattering. Charlotte makes repetitive and head-scratching decisions that pad out the runtime. Ginger grates more than she is sympathetic, making it harder to grasp the tragedy of a father transforming before her eyes. Blake’s struggle between the man and wolf can be harrowing, but the lighting makes the affair too dark and gloomy to appreciate the horror.
Reckoning with the legacy of the Universal Monsters pantheon, the ‘Wolf Man’ has been a symbol over multiple decades. Whether it be about the beast that lives within every man, the fear of losing control, or the nature of evil itself, Whannell attempts the notion that the wolf here is a manifestation of toxic, masculine parenting and protection. While a good and modern idea on paper, the film never rises beyond what looks like a first draft to actualise these central concerns.
Wolf Man will please those wanting simple, low-budget scares, but disappointment will line the midnight skies for anyone wanting a cut above the usual Blumhouse affair. While the transformation even puts the audience into the point of view of Blake’s changing circumstances (along with some ghastly CGI), it never utilises all its elements to deliver a satisfying climax structurally and thematically. Wolf Man is a film that howls to the sky for something new but echoes the cries of the old.
Director: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth
Writer: Leigh Whannell, Corbett Tuck
Producer: Jason Blum
Cinematography: Stefan Duscio
Editor: Andy Canny
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch
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