Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott (Poor Things, It Comes at Night) stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Emmy winner Julia Garner; Ozark, Inventing Anna), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth; Hullraisers, Coma).
But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.
What We Thought:
My expectations for Wolf Man must have been very low because I seemed to enjoy it a lot more than other people. I didn’t think much of The Invisible Man and was expecting this follow up from director Leigh Whannell to be like that film. Luckily for me, it is not. This is much more of a creature feature than The Invisible Man was and is a solid return to horror form for Whannell.
Don’t get me wrong, Wolf Man is far from perfect and nowhere near the classic that is the original Universal Monster Movie, but it certainly feels like the other Blumhouse January horror releases of the past few years. Going into it I expected it to have some sort of social commentary like The Invisible Man did. Beyond the husband and wife having some issues over her work schedule, it’s a rather straight forward film. It opens with the husband character being a young boy with his father and establishes the creature in the woods. It time jumps 30 years and the husband character finds out his father has passed. He takes his wife and daughter to his father’s cabin in the woods, but everything goes sideways instantly.
I’m cool with it not trying to be anything besides a creature feature. The werewolf effects are solid and the leads are very good. Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner hold your attention throughout and you sit there just enjoying a monster in a cabin in the woods environment. There is no social commentary on abuse or stalking or anything like that. It’s simply a monster flick.
I’ve already seen one review from a major outlet saying they were let down by Wolf Man because it didn’t have anything to say like The Invisible Man did. That’s exactly why I would recommend it. Horror has been a genre known for sneaking in social commentary, but it doesn’t always have to. Wolf Man isn’t great, but I was entertained by it. It’s a slow burn to start, but once it gets going I didn’t hate myself for seeing it. Sure I might forget it exists by the end of 2025, but for a movie I had low expectations for, it was a pleasant surprise.
RECOMMENDED!
Cast:
Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner and Sam Jaeger, Matilda Firth, Benedict Hardie, Ben Prendergast, Zac Chandler, Beatriz Romilly, Milo Cawthorne
Directed by:
Leigh Whannell
Written by:
Leigh Whannell & Corbett Tuck
Produced by:
Jason Blum p.g.a, Ryan Gosling
Executive Producers:
Leigh Whannell, Beatriz Sequeira, Mel Turner, Ken Kao
Rated R for bloody violent content, grisly images and some language
WOLF MAN IS IN THEATERS JANUARY 17TH
The Nerds Templar 