Wolf Man (2025)
Directed by: Leigh Whannell
Written by: Corbett Tuck, Leigh Whannell
Starring: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, Sam Jaeger
USA
IN CINEMAS NOW
RUNNING TIME: 103 mins
REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera
1995, in the wild lands of Oregon, where rumours have long existed about a virus linked to the region’s wildlife which the Native Americans refer to as ‘The Face of the Wolf.’ Young Blake Lovell is out on a hunting trip with his strict father Grady and encounter some kind of creature, ending up having to flee up a ladder to a gun sight. In the present day, adult Blake is a struggling writer in New York City who’s become a stay-at-home father for young Ginger. He’s married to journalist Charlotte, but they’re going through a bad patch. Blake receives word that Grady has finally been declared dead after being missing for years, leaving the family home to his estranged son. Blake thinks a move to rural Oregon will help things, but as they near the property, he’s scratched by an unknown creature, after which he starts to undergo changes….
Most werewolf films concern a person or persons who transform into either a wolf or, far more frequently. a cross between a wolf and a human, before changing back again, usually as the sun rises. In this one, the concept has been changed. The change from human to werewolf is something that happens gradually, and once it’s been completed. that’s it; there’s no change back. Universal have been trying to reboot their classic monsters for some time, but up until recently it was to form a Marvel-style cinematic universe, which to be fair did also come about in the ’40s when Frankenstein met the Wolf Man and Dracula, though it took time for this to happen and certainly wasn’t the intent back in 1930 when it all began However, relative lack of audience interest and mediocre end products caused the studio to do some rethinking. I was of the opinion that they ought to give up altogether, and we did still have to suffer the irritating Renfield, but The Invisible Man was different; it was set in the present day and exploited current concerns, with very little throwing back to the past at all. It was also rather good and a box office success. Universal accepted a pitch by Ryan Gosling, who was also set to star, for a new Wolf Man film with Derek Cianfrance to direct. Of course there’d already been a Wolf Man remake in 1015, and very decent it was too, though it wasn’t a hit. This second remake – and it is sort of a semi-remake of the 1941 The Wolf Man – is fairly different too. Taking place mostly in and around one rural house and with just three main characters, it reduces matters to their basics in the form of a dark family drama, but mostly lacks edge and seems curiously determined to hold back all over the place, with so much, from ideas to individual scenes, just not fulfilling their potential.
We begin in 1995 with a flashback to Blake as a young boy, out in the forest with his gruff and serious father, Grady, concerned about his survival in Oregon’s wilderness. The identification of wild mushrooms is certainly important, but then there’s also, as opening credits hav ealready told us, those rumours that have long swirled about a missing hiker and this ‘disease’ Native Americans referred to as ‘The Face of the Wolf.’ Blake wanders off to get a better shot at a deer and is promptly yelled at, then bis dad, noting a noise, finds a creature in his gun site and demands the boy run towards the deer blind. Something follows them up the ladder, but after Grady fires, the Lovells find nothing. Later on, back home, Blake can’t sleep and sneaks downstairs to overhear and see his agitated dad on his basement radio, telling his friend Dan that he saw ‘it.’ It’s a pretty good opening; making points about the savagery of nature, giving us a snapshot of a father / son relationship that borders on the abusive, becoming quite intense, and leaving just the right amount of mystery. Thirty years later we see the adult Blake walking through the streets of San Francisco with his 8 year-old daughter and when Ginger climbs up on some barriers, Blake yells, demanding she get down right now, and we see echoes of Grady in the intensity of his anger. He apologises, explaining that it’s his job to protect her and that he was scared, but we’re a little disturbed nonetheless. They then play an obviously long-running game where Blake pretends Ginger can read his mind. “I love my daughter very much”, she guesses, Blake declaring her truly gifted. In their apartment Blake is cooking dinner when Charlotte comes in, on the phone with work related business. “Please take that in the other room”, Blake demands of her not once.
The next day as she leaves work with some colleagues, she finds Blake sitting on the stairs. He’s brought lunch, asks if she’s happy and suggests spending some family time in the home he’s just learned is now his, courtesy of his long estranged father. The next thing we know, the trio are heading there, but the old track that used to lead to the house is now barricaded. Never mind, Derek, his father’s friend Dan’s son who now owns this area. leads them another way to the house as the sun sets. However it’s getting dark and a strange figure standing in the middle of the road causes Blake to veer down a hill, the truck overturning and hung up in a tree, an act shown effectively and economically form Blake’s point of view. This bit deserves a special mention for another reason though It seems ludicrous that this jeep would be able to end up so high – unless of course we’re intended to assume that the creature may have thrown it up there, which is even more ludicrous. Derek falls out and is dragged off by that mysterious figure – and kudos for Whannell for still keeping his monster hidden. I can imagine studio executives leaning over him saying “more monster more monster” but he obviously stuck to his guns. Blake gets his family gathered and they run, barely making it into the farm, that figure – now briefly glimpsed on all fours – in hot pursuit. They reach the house, Blake turning on the generator and barricading the entrance to protect them from the monster outside. All this is good stuff, and those who loved the scary sequences of The Invisible Man will love the nighttime section that follows, Whannell again showing how good he is at keeping an audience totally on edge. Unfortunately things go downhill from now on.
Take the idea of a person very slowly changing into a ferocious creature, and the effect that this has on his or her family. It should be gut wrenchingly sad, troubling and graphic, but for some strange reason Whannell chooses to restrain himself in so many ways. Yes, we’re engaged, but I was just as engaged with something like The Beast Within. The film sets up Blake’s relationship with his daughter before his relationship with his wife, but it never goes as deep as it ought to, and we’re offered surprisingly few powerfully emotional moments between the two, which could have happened despite the rather mechanical performance of Mathilda Firth as Ginger. Yes there are some, but not nearly enough. The script doesn’t even do much with the idea of Blake being like his own controlling, prone-to-anger dad; surely, in a narrative that could have done with expansion so much that I wonder if we’re one day be seeing a longer cut, we could have seen more of Blake behaving like a chip off the old block? Perhaps most disappointingly, despite both versions but especially the remake of The Fly being obvious influences, Blake’s slow transformation doesn’t result in nearly as much body horror that we should probably expect. His gradual change begins with the loss of much of his thick curly hair while his face becomes mottled and his teeth begin to fall out. Much of the transformation is conveyed by allowing us to experience what Blake is experiencing as his senses become more acute, such as distorted POV and improved hearing shown by a loud thudding sound turning out to be a spider climbing up a wall. This is nicely done, but some proper grue would really have raised things even more, the occasional icky bit that does happen being brief or partly shrouded in darkness. Did this film begin as a project intended for a PG 13 rating and was then hurriedly upped?
The final transformation is a big disappointment, especially considering all the memorable ones that we’ve seen in movies, the greatest one being of course from a certain 1980 classic which has never quite been matched ever since despite all the supposed advances in technology. The employment of practical effects here can only be applauded, and they’re fine, but we don’t see anything noteworthy, and Blake never even looks wolf-like, he’s more like a zombie, which sure disappointed this werewolf lover.. I mean I’ve loved werewolves since I was a kid, so when I’m watching a werewolf film I want to see the main werewolf actually looking like a werewolf, you see, even if I appreciate differences in look. As you’ve probably realised, there’s another werewolf too, though thankfully that godawful makeup design that annoyed so many when it was revealed to the public isn’t seen in much detail. A good decision indeed, though the most prominent scene in which this creature features should still be really exciting but is almost over before we know it, a shame as this film avoids the expected set pieces of werewolf killings. The climax does manage to excite, but again it’s too short, and also fails to provide the right amount of emotional catharsis, us being left with rather too much to ponder upon in an unsatisfactory manner. Generational child abuse from parents is clearly the main theme, but Whannell fails to relate it very well to the idea of werewolves, and other potential metaphors except lycanthropy now as a disease are mostly ignored. Thank goodness then for Christopher Abbott who’s just great throughout, increasingly limited to acting under heavy makeup but not letting this hold him back, partly because he has such expressive eyes. Julia Garner is just dull though.
This Wolf Man isn’t terrible, and its first third, even its first half, is really rather good, but this sets up expectations which then aren’t fulfilled by a second half which just disappoints over and over again, Whannell this time giving us a film that’s only partly achieved from writing to execution, and which takes away so much of what makes werewolves interesting, though his skill as a horror director just about remains here and there.
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