Much like director Leigh Whannell’s first “classic monster” movie, The Invisible Man (2020), Wolf Man is a thoroughly modern take on the old Wolf Man monster.
We open in 1995, in a desolate forest area where a father takes his young son, Blake, out to shoot deer. Along the way they spot something… odd. A creature that looks like an animal, but stands on two legs like a man. Blake later finds his father in the basement of their home, talking to other hunters on the CB radio… saying he is going to kill the “creature.”
Thirty years later, Blake (Christopher Abbott) is all grown up and living in New York City with a wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), and a young daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth). Blake gets a letter notifying him that the state of Oregon has finally declared his father dead, which means that Blake, as the remaining relative, one who hasn’t spoken to this father in decades, has to go deal with the house. He thinks it will be fun to turn this into a family trip.
So Blake, Charlotte, and Ginger load into a small moving van and drive out to Oregon. Things start off bad when they get lost, then get worse when Blake almost hits a man (maybe?) in the road and veers over a cliff. The three of them make it safely out of the van, but an acquaintance of Blake’s, who was helping them find their way, falls from the van and is dragged off by something unseen. The family makes their way to Blake’s childhood home, with something big and growly on their heels. Charlotte discovers a large gash in Blake’s arm, and things get out of control very quickly.
Spoiler Alert: Blake becomes the titular Wolf Man.
I’ve been a fan of Leigh Whannell for years, so it’s no surprise that he has delivered an excellent movie. Wolf Man delivers on the scares, far more than even The Invisible Man. For one thing, the film is loud. The audio design is sharp, making some not-otherwise-scary scenes full-on jump scares (though there are plenty of properly scary jump scares, too). The film is also dark. The majority of the film is set over a single night, in a remote area, making darkness a character.
I’m not sure I liked this version of the Wolf Man makeup. On the one hand, it was monstrous and walked a careful line between human and wolf, which was important for this film. On the other hand, this wolf wasn’t furry and he didn’t have a tail. Honestly, he didn’t look as much like a wolf as he did a deformed man, who walks on two legs. It was still monstrous, but let’s be honest: digitally rearranging bones beneath flesh does not equal the Rick Baker creation in An American Werewolf in London (1981).
One interesting aspect was “wolf vision,” in which you see (and hear) what the wolf is seeing, as he is seeing it. I liked this, as it gave us a chance to feel what it is like to be a wolf in this universe.
The actors, honestly, were inconsequential. Julia Garner and Madeline Firth spent most of the film running from Christopher Abbott. Garner did a good job with her tough mom role and didn’t become a simpering idiot, but that is kind of what you expect nowadays in horror films: the girls kick ass. But any good actress can play that role; Charlotte did not have much in the way of characterization – and that is fine. This movie is about the monster, not about how someone deals with the monster. I can’t help but wonder if the daughter was named Ginger after the main character in Ginger Snaps (2000), a classic coming-of-age werewolf film.
What little characterization was included was wholly unnecessary. Early on in the film, we learn that Blake has a passionate angry streak (I assume it is to show one of the consequences of life with his father), but other than a fiery moment at the beginning of the film, this part of his personality is never touched upon again. The same thing happens with their marriage: it is revealed early on that the two are having problems with their marriage, but it never comes up again. Wolf Man is a dark, gory, scary film. I imagine that it is what the original Universal Monster films generated in audiences: classic horror chills that scare you, exhilarate you, and find you genuinely invested in the story.
