Wolf Man

I’m glad that Universal finally gave up on trying to make the Dark Universe work. These monster flicks clearly work best as standalone feature films, and not as part of a shared cinematic universe. And I think Universal probably understood that point after the success of 2020’s Invisible Man. Which is good, because that movie is awesome! 

I’ve been a fan of Leigh Whannell ever since he helped create the Saw franchise, but The Invisible Man was clearly his best work to date. He updated a classic monster for modern audiences - in a way that felt truly scary and effective - with a story that also featured some interesting social commentary. So when I heard that Universal hired him back for an update on The Wolf Man, I was really excited! I couldn’t wait to see his take on another classic monster, especially since I do enjoy a good werewolf movie. Vampires have been making a good comeback lately, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m a bigger werewolf fan at heart. So I had very high expectations for Leigh Whannel’s Wolf Man. 

Unfortunately - and this will probably come as a surprise to no one - I was very disappointed with this movie. 

It began in a rather compelling way, telling a story that did offer an interesting exploration of fatherhood, it’s just a shame that that story got less and less engaging as the movie went on. 

Blake and his family are attacked by a wild animal and, in a desperate attempt to escape, they barricade themselves inside of a family farmhouse. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to transform into something unrecognizable, jeopardizing the safety of his wife and daughter.

And I think ”unrecognizable” is the keyword in that synopsis, since Blake never really turned into a werewolf. Sure, he turned a bit hairy and wild, but his transformation didn’t resemble anything remotely close to a wolf. He looked more like a man in a Planet of the Apes costume than anything else. And that was incredibly frustrating! Because if the Wolf Man doesn’t turn into a wolf, then what the hell are we even doing here??

I assume Leigh Whannell was trying to ground this movie in some sense of realism - much like he did with The Invisible Man - but I think he went too far in that direction here. After all, most of my interest in seeing a movie called Wolf Man comes from wanting to see a man transform into a wolf! 

Thankfully, the movie did feature some tense moments of body horror, especially as we see Blake’s perspective of becoming the wolf-like man, but these moments weren’t enough to keep me invested with the rest of the movie. Which is a shame, since the first half of the film was admittedly pretty good. When I got through the first half an hour or so, I thought I was going to be one of the few people who actually enjoyed it. But the second half of the film - lack of werewolf aside - was just… really uninteresting. 

The more predictable the story became, the less frightening the tone became. And the less scary the movie became, the less effective the themes about fatherhood became. Everything just started to devolve as the movie progressed. 

Everything except the acting that is. Everyone in this cast delivered a really solid performance throughout, and that was especially true for Christopher Abbott’s lead performance. Sure, it would’ve been interesting to see what Ryan Gosling would’ve done with this material under the direction of Derek Cianfrance, but Christopher Abbott did a fine job of leading this film. I especially enjoyed watching his character undergo moments of sadness or confusion, because his face would perfectly express the look of a lost puppy dog. Which seemed appropriate, given the subject matter.

But this was not the werewolf comeback that I was hoping for. It had some good elements featured in it, but not enough to keep it from being a really disappointing creature feature. 

I’d rather watch this than 2017’s The Mummy, but given its poor reception and underwhelming performance at the box office, it’ll be interesting to see which direction Universal will take with their future monster flicks. Will they go back to building a shared cinematic universe? Will they stick to standalone feature films? Will they give Leigh Whannell another crack at a different monster? Would Leigh Whannel even want to work on another monster movie? I guess only time will tell.

Whatever they do, I hope Whannell’s next project will end up being a bit better than this. Because Wolf Man would, unfortunately, not get a recommendation from me.