Wolf Man review
A confusing perspective leaves Wolf Man without much to say.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Wolf Man
Directed by Leigh Whannell
Written by Leigh Whannell and Corbett Tuck
Starring Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott
Wolf Man Review
Leigh Whannell struck gold with his last modern adaptation of a classic Universal Monster. 2020’s The Invisible Man was a massive success both creatively and commercially. Time will soon tell if his take on the Wolf Man will reach the same financial peaks. Creatively…we already have our answer. 2025’s Wolf Man falls well short of Whannell’s The Invisible Man…and the Lon Chaney original.
Wolf Man isn’t the first attempt to update the property. 2010’s Benicio del Toro led The Wolfman wasn’t well received either. Whannell’s Wolf Man, like his Invisible Man, isn’t concerned with honoring the classic character. In and of itself, this isn’t a problem. It certainly worked out last time. Bringing the character concept to the modern age is a fine starting point. What undoes this version of the character is a distinct lack of fun…and a confusing perspective choice.
We are introduced to our lead, Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott) as a child. His father is tough. They hunt the local woods…and come across an animal that walks like a man. Flash forward thirty years and Blake is married to the successful but overworked Charlotte (Julia Garner). They have a young daughter named Ginger (Matilda Firth). When Blake receives word that his long-vanished father has been declared legally dead…the family heads to his childhood home in the Oregon woods to clean it out. They quickly learn that the danger in the woods hasn’t changed.
Blake is so firmly entrenched as our main character that his inevitable infection at the hands of the creature in the woods becomes an almost baffling decision. He’s the only person we know anything about. His character is the only one who can reasonably have an arc. The infection renders him mute for more than half of the film. A problem that would be easily alleviated had Garner’s Charlotte been the focus of the story to begin with. A well-trained mother who feels she has lost connection with her daughter due to her career tapping into those lessons to defend them against a growing werewolf threat…that’s an interesting story. As it is, pretty much everything we learn about Blake becomes worthless. There is no arc for him. There is no payoff. He’s reduced to an incredibly long, slow transformation into the story’s antagonist. Leaving behind a protagonist we have no reason to care about.
It’s such an odd choice that one wonders if something was lost in a series of rewrites. Charlotte is a paper-thin character, wasting Garner’s talents. Abbott does a fine job developing Blake pre-infection. We understand him perfectly. And it doesn’t matter whatsoever. He’s quite good at portraying the prolonged pain and confusion of his transformation as well. But the two sides have no connection to each other. There is only so much mileage to be gained from knowing who someone was before they were cursed when they aren’t going to change back (more on that in a moment). Especially when we are left following characters with little backstory or understanding. The problem here comes down to what Wolf Man doesn’t take from its classic monster.
Lawrence Talbot, played so beautifully by Lon Chaney Jr., was a man burdened by his curse. A desperate man who couldn’t control what he became when the full moon rose in the night sky. Talbot was in search of a cure and, if necessary, a way out. He couldn’t live with the monster inside of him. His knowledge of the wolf man while in his human form is what makes the character interesting. Wolf Man doesn’t play by the same rules. Or, it seems, any traditional rules.
Forget silver bullets. Not used here. Forget the full moon. Doesn’t seem to have anything to do with this wolf story. It’s never outright stated that the wolf form is permanent…but a story beat late in Wolf Man points to that being the case. We certainly never see Blake as fully human again. No time spent worrying about what’s inside of you…or its inevitable return. They say it’s not safe to be out at night…but we meet the original creature in the middle of the day…so who knows what any of that’s about. Sloppy would be a word you could use to describe Wolf Man’s implementation of lore and logic.
Without any introspection from the only character who we have been given any insight into…Wolf Man just slowly meanders through the night. Charlotte tries to protect her daughter. Her brief concern about their connection never coming back into play. Blake slowly slips further and further into his new form. A full-fledged wolf man knocking about the outside of their home. The short time Blake spends trying to keep his family safe while he’s slipping away is the highlight of Wolf Man. Because it’s the last time our main character is ever in focus. Too soon…he will be unable to communicate and, on a steep, but very slow, decline. Leaving everything the movie built about him rendered moot. And leaving Wolf Man wandering the woods in darkness with nothing to light the way.
Scare Value
Wolf Man is good looking picture that doesn’t end up having much to say. It isn’t scary…which would be fine if the story worked. The confusing perspective renders that almost impossible. It’s hard to figure out what Wolf Man was setting out to do. It’s easy to see that it didn’t achieve it.
2/5
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