Wolf Man is Blumhouse's second modern take on a classic Universal monster following 2020's The Invisible Man. The previous film's writer/director, Leigh Whannel, returns on both fronts and while Wolf Man isn't as successful as his previous effort it is better than the insipid horror-lite fair the studio was putting out last year.
This is not a not a straight retelling of the classic wolf man story, portraying the transformation as more of a virus than a curse and dispensing with any notion of a full moon being involved. These suckers are monsters 24/7 and when we eventually get a full look at the titular beast, he doesn't really look anything like a wolf. The creature idea here is a more Cronenbergian picture of a human body twisted into something disturbing, although despite some fairly grim stages of transformation we never come close to anything like The Fly.
After an opening section set thirty years previously and an introduction to the central family, the majority of the movie takes place over a single night as Christopher Abbot takes wife Julia Garner and daughter Matilda Firth with him to pack up his dead father's Oregon cabin. Why he though bringing his family to a remote off grid residence where he heard scary noises as a child and his father disappeared from was a good idea is anyone's guess but he claims it will help his strained marriage. En route they encounter the wolf man and while they escape, dad gets scratched. This leads to them barricading themselves in the cabin with the twin dangers of a monster prowling outside and Abbot turning feral inside the walls.
There is some good stuff going on in Wolf Man. The acting is good and there's a suitably ominous score courtesy of Benjamin Wallfisch. We are also treated to some nice visual touches, with switching POV shots showing the difference in the way the infected father begins to see the world. Overhead shots and sweeping vistas convey the enormity of the Oregon forests, making it all too believable that something unknown could lurk there.
The problem is, there just isn't enough of any one thing to make the film a particularly compelling watch. It isn't scary enough to work as a simple horror thrill ride and the creeping body horror element isn't strong enough to prop things up. It clearly takes inspiration from the aforementioned The Fly but whereas that 80's masterpiece portrayed the slow decay of the human body viewed through the distraught eyes of Gena Davis things here happen all too suddenly and the wife and daughter don't appear anywhere near as freaked out as they should be. Expanding the timeline a little would have let this element breathe. Wolf Man also doesn't have enough on its mind, or doesn't convey enough at any rate, to work as a psychological piece. It has notions of generational trauma, how a man views his role in the world and the growing gulf between partners who are becoming estranged but there isn't enough meat on the bones and the dialogue is too ham fisted for any these ideas to hit home. It's a far cry from Whannel's masterful depiction of an abusive relationship in The Invisible Man.
So Wolf Man takes a big swing but, whether due to lack of time or focus, doesn't quite connect. Not a disaster and has some neat practical effects but certainly not the new werewolf classic we were hoping for.
6 listen to me I'm your fathers out of 10.
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