REVIEW: “Wolf Man” (2025)

WRITER’S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on January 31, 2025. It was the first new film I saw in theatres this year, and the first new film I saw in a new year that was a horror feature since Scream (a.k.a. Scream 5) back in 2022. 

Universal Pictures had been spending most of the 21st Century trying to update its classic slate of iconic monster movies with several attempts—many of which didn’t ultimately work in the end, resulting in an underwhelming track record overall. (We’re looking at you, 2017 Mummy.) Then, at the turn of the recent decade, along comes writer-director Leigh Whannell (co-creator of the Saw and Insidious horror franchises), with a modern retelling of The Invisible Man. That brilliantly-made but shockingly-relevant and chilling update of the 1933 original (starring Claude Rains) is now followed up with a new version of Lon Chaney Jr.’s 1941 performance as The Wolf Man. 

The most intriguing aspects of horror movie directors, to me, are the social commentary they incorporate in their unique takes, such as when Jordan Peele touched on race relations in Get Out, or when John Krasinski focused on the fears and uncertainties of raising a family in a terrifying world in A Quiet Place. For Whannell’s films, he wrote The Invisible Man as a reflection of/response to the #MeToo movement. When he wrote Wolf Man, he and co-writer (and spouse) Corbett Tuck were influenced/impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic. (Ironically, Invisible Man was one of the last films to get a theatrical release before the world went into lockdown.) 

The story of Wolf Man is set mostly over the course of one night, and centers on a family of three. Husband and father Blake (played by Christopher Abbott) takes his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) to his childhood home in Utah for the weekend, to pack his late father’s things after the latter’s sudden disappearance and death. It’s suggested that Blake had/endured an abusive and overbearing relationship from his own father as a child, while his current marriage is on the rocks (the workaholic Charlotte has apparently forgotten how to be a mother) and his relationship with his daughter is loving and sincere. Then, an intersection (and literal crash) with a mysterious creature leads the trio to shelter in the aforementioned home, leading to a long night of survival from dark unseen forces outside—and eventually from within. 

To his credit, Whannell certainly knows how to make an effective and atmospheric horror movie. There are moments in Wolf Man that had me covering my ears and/or looking away, when it feels like anything can suddenly happen and dread is hiding around every corner. (The opening hunting sequence did that for me, as did a later scene involving a battery-started pickup truck.) The movie also benefits from taking a more practical and grounded, sometimes bone-crunching, approach than more recent CGI flicks (like the 2010 remake featuring Rick Baker’s award-winning makeup). It recalls the effects and practicality of David Cronenberg’s The Fly or John Carpenter’s The Thing (both of which Whannell is a huge fan of). And instead of a typical full-moon curse and rapid transformation, what we get here is a disease-related transition showcasing various stages of sickness and decay (including losing teeth and fingernails, and gnawing on bloodied wounds). 

The result is a slow-burn, body horror tragedy, filled with stomach-churning sound effects and genuine, edge-of-your-seat thrills and scares. The central action feels like a home invasion thriller, inside and out. (The film’s tagline reads, “Keep the bad things outside.”) Plus, as another COVID parallel, one character describes this setting as “cut off from the rest of the world.” 

That being said, the look of the titular monster may polarize some viewers. The otherwise unique lighting design and point-of-view shots that echo Blake’s slow transformation and auditory lenses can be a little off-putting. It’s also hard to tell what’s going on at this point, as the color palette is a little too dark. The father-daughter dynamic, again, is arguably this film’s beating heart. Blake even expresses his regrets that his little girl had to experience this—and what she soon will as well. Yet, even this leads to strange combinations of poignancy with graphic and disturbing imagery (one involving a sick flesh wound; another, a bear trap). The film itself, while thematically and technically intriguing, loses momentum and (like Blake) slowly sinks away, especially in the story’s third act. 

Overall, this Wolf Man, while it harkens back to primal fears and anxieties within the genre (a la Carpenter, Cronenberg or Stanley Kubrick), is a very bloody, terrifying, and depressing affair. And you don’t need a full moon to tell you that. 

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