It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for the revival of the classic Universal Monsters. The Mummy (2017) was dead on arrival, taking plans for a cinematic universe down with it. The Invisible Man (2020) was amazing, and Dracula saw moderate success with Renfeild and Last Voyage of the Demeter. Now we arrive at Wolf Man, written and directed by Leigh Whannell. Whannell, who also wrote and directed the aforementioned Invisible Man remake, has returned to put another modern spin on a classic monster movie that does away with the typical werewolf tropes of full moons, silver bullets, and the repeat transformations between human and wolf, instead trading its gothic roots for a new body horror interpretation.
The story follows Blake Lovell who, after learning about the death of his estranged father, plans to temporarily relocate his family from San Francisco to his childhood home deep in the remote mountains of Oregon in an attempt to save his struggling marriage and ease growing tension with his wife and daughter. On the drive up to the house, the family is ambushed by a mysterious creature who scratches Blake’s arm, infecting him with a virus known in the region as “The Face of the Wolf”. The monster chases them through the forest until they manage to reach the house.
Unable to contact help, the Luvells must survive until sunrise which proves to be much harder than anticipated as the creature continuously stalks the property and Blake begins to succumb to his injuries, slowly transforming into the same monstrosity that threatens them outside. Despite this, he manages to hold onto his humanity to the very end, protecting his family from the monster and refraining from attacking them himself until the virus completely takes over.
On paper, it sounds like an ambitious reimagining that could work. It’s made by the same team who brought The Invisible Man to life with Whannell writing and directing, Jason Blum producing, cinematography by Stefan Duscio, Andy Canny editing, and music composed by Benjamin Wallfisch. But despite all that, Wolf Man stumbles from beginning to end, struggling to deliver an engaging and competent horror movie that was ultimately carried entirely by its final act. Where the first and second fail, the finale, where Blake’s transformation completes, picks up the slack, delivering on the tension and effective suspense that the rest of the film doesn’t, relying on more than just loud abrupt noises to scare you.
But unfortunately, that isn’t enough to make the movie as a whole good, as we’re left with one-dimensional characters that we hardly get to know on a deeper & emotional level, lousy pacing, and dialog that is cringe…very cringe. But, in my opinion, the most glaring issue with this movie is the “werewolf” design. I use quotations because while very grotesque and legitimately frightening, it’s the last thing I would think of when I think of a werewolf and feels like it would work better in a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of movie.
We got our first glimpse of this design when it was portrayed at the most recent Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights, sparking immediate disappointment among fans who reacted with a unanimous “What the f**k is this?” For me, this was the first sign that this movie was destined to fail and I just couldn’t help but feel like I wasn’t gonna like it.
In an interview with NME, Leigh Whannell addressed the backlash of the design, stating that the movie was “Much more something along the lines of [1986’s] The Fly.”, meaning that the transformation would take effect over a long period of time, and hinting that what we saw was only midway through the transformation. With that in mind, I was willing to let my guard down a little and go into it with more of an open mind. I knew it was going to be different and I was 100% on board with a body horror interpretation of the Wolf Man, but after seeing the movie and everything it did wrong, that interview feels more like damage control than reassurance.
Wolf Man brought some unique ideas to the table and had potential, but failed in its overall execution resulting in a subpar movie. I’m sure it won’t be considered one of the worst films of 2025, but I can’t imagine it’ll be making anyone’s top 10 lists this year.
