Hello everyone and welcome back to a brand new review! For this one, we will be looking at the latest attempt from Universal to modernize one of their iconic monsters. This time it is the Wolf Man, a character who has been the subject of various films dating back to 1941, when Lon Chaney Jr. first donned the fursuit. The last attempt to make the titular character work on the big screen was back in 2010 with the Benicio Del Toro version, which was a huge critical and financial disappointment. Ever since then, Universal has been trying to revive their classic monsters brand in various ways, some more successful (The Invisible Man) than the others (The Mummy, Renfield, Dracula Untold, etc.). Now they have gone back to the Wolf Man well with Blumhouse behind the production and Leigh Whannell coming in to direct after having done such a great job with The Invisible Man redo. His involvement is what had me stoked for this project as I adore the 2020 Invisible Man, even though I was curious as what the original incarnation of this would have been (originally had Derek Cianfrance as director and Ryan Gosling set to star). So was this one able to join the better camp of these Classic Monsters re-imaginings? Let’s jump right in and see what strong this wolf was!
After a prologue detailing a hunting trip between our lead, Blake, and his strict father, we jump to thirty years later where Blake is all grown up living in San Francisco with family in the form of his wife, Charlotte, and his daughter, Ginger. There is a bit of a strain going on in that marriage with Blake having trouble controlling his temper, but he still tries to be the best father he possibly can be. One day, he receives a death certificate for his father, who he had been estranged with for a while, as well as the keys to his childhood home up in Oregon. He sees this as an opportunity and convinces Charlotte to go up to the house along with Ginger for a vacation in order to reconnect as a family. Along the way, they encounter a strange monstrous being that attacks them at night with Blake getting injured in the process. They head to the house, locking everything up, hoping to fend off this creature, with strange things beginning to occur to Blake, whose injury might be changing him in different ways.
Whannell is trying for something similar to Invisible Man, where he is taking this iconic monster and applying it to a modern day setting with a relationship falling appart at its center. Now, the one in Invisible Man was A LOT more toxic, but it’s a similar idea at play here. It’s not a bad one as I can see what he was going for. Using the wolf man concept to explore themes related to the cycle of violence and how it can be passed down and shape those who are raised by it is definitely fascinating and the film is at its most interesting when we see Blake slowly losing himself to this curse, which is treated (and shown) like a disease eating him away. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that sort perspective where we get to see how the person turning into a were-wolf feels during the process and I really loved seeing how that unfolded as it leads to some nasty body horror. It also added some heart break into the proceedings as we see him struggle to communicate with his family almost like we’re watching a marriage fall a part in a unique way. Whenever the focus was on that stuff, I think the movie works quite well.
That being said, those moments that work are offset by a couple of key issues. For one, the lack of development when it came to certain aspects of the story. I didn’t really find the main relationship to be all that developed and most of the stuff that’s presented isn’t that compelling. Whannell and co-writer, Corbett Tuck, also struggle when it comes to how to handle the themes at play as conceptually they’re interesting, but I don’t think they do the best in portraying Blake as someone succumbing to the cycle of violence as he only got mad at his daughter once for something reasonable and I don’t really buy him as the sort to become like his father. Plus, the script often times outright states the messaging with a yellow highlighter when the audience could’ve easily interpret it, which was frustrating. It frankly lessened the impact that was trying to be achieved and makes the film feel like it has less to say than intended as there’s not too much beyond the obviously stated most of the time. It doesn’t help matters that thanks to most of the movie taking place in one location during one night, the plot gets fairly repetitive as we move from set piece of the family fending off a wolf man to the next until we arrive to an inevitable outcome. That wouldn’t be too much of an issue, if I was more invested in this family, but alas.
That being said, Whannell is certainly putting in effort when it comes to some of the stylistic choices in this movie as it is a polished and well made movie. For one thing, he is very good at providing a very effective atmosphere where there’s eeriness to the proceedings that is further enhanced by Stefan Duscio’s cinematography which uses shadows pretty effectively at times to give the film this suspenseful vibe. Plus, while the film has its share of jump scares here and there, quite a few of them are actually pretty effective and are built up quite nicely (even if there are a couple of ones that are fairly typical). I also especially like the way Whannell portrays Blake turning into a wolf as he begins to experience heightened emotions such as hearing little noises or slowly failing to understand his family, which only adds to the intended tragedy that was being aimed for.
Now one can’t have a werewolf movie without a transformation and I honestly didn’t mind the route that was taken with this one. Yes, I can understand why people were concerned about the design (or at least one of the designs) when it was revealed at Halloween Horror Nights, and it is not going to be for everyone especially if one was expecting a more traditional approach to the were-wolf mythos. That being said, given the route that was taken with the curse being treated like a disease slowly eating away at Blake, I thought it worked well in that regard. It is a different interpretation that I could get behind and the makeup and prosthetics team did a very good bringing it to life as we see Blake’s transformation throughout the film and how he changes a little bit more physically with each passing scene. Some of the gore effects are also very well done, being appropriately nasty and not for the faint of heart.
Now in order for the transformation to be effective, you have to have some solid talent portraying that. Thankfully Christopher Abbott is very good as Blake, capturing the trauma he’s felt in a reserved fashion with his facial expressions and voice mannerisms adding to it. The script may not give him the best material, but he manages to sell it well enough and is at his best when he begins to change into this monster as he conveys so much (pain, anger, heartbreak, etc.) with few words. Even some of the interactions he has with his daughter manage to work well with Matilda Firth doing a decent job as the scared child witnessing trauma that her father was trying to prevent her from seeing all her life. I just wish Julia Garner was given a bit more to do beyond being the concerned wife most of the time. She’s fine, but not given as much depth as Blake; what makes it worse is that Abbott and Garner don’t have the strongest chemistry with one another, meaning their interactions just don’t click as well as they should.
On the whole, I found Wolf Man to be a very mixed bag. It certainly has elements that I really appreciated, such as how it tries to explore its themes in relation to the concept, the creepy atmosphere, some solid craftsmanship, and a strong lead performance, but the story isn’t as compelling as it should be. It could’ve explored its themes in a more interesting manner, and I just didn’t care much for the main family relationship. As someone who has enjoyed Whannell’s work, it really does disappoint me that I didn’t like this more because on paper this should have been another slam dunk after what he achieved with Invisible Man. Instead, we have a film that wants to be on that same level but just can’t seem to reach those aspirations. If one is in the mood for some scares then there is some entertainment value here, but I can’t say I’m too surprised that most people aren’t gravitating towards this one (it doesn’t help that it is a pretty big downer from beginning to end). Oh well, here’s hoping Whannell’s next project turns out better and that the next take on a Universal Monster is a winner (your move, James Wan with Creature from the Black Lagoon).
Rating: C+
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