Director: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Julia Garner, Chrisopher Abbott, Sam Jaeger
Screenplay: Leigh Whannell, Corbett Tuck
103 mins. Rated R.

I really wanted the Dark Universe to work, but in the years since its toppling, Universal has really been exploring the possibilities of their legendary characters with films like Renfield, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and The Invisible Man, the latter of which was written and directed by Leigh Whannell, who has been steadily crafting franchises and terrific original films for over 20 years now. His newest Universal relaunch, Wolf Man, has some really captivating ideas and themes as well as an interesting reimplementation of the werewolf mythos, even though its story is a little paint-by-numbers.

When Blake (Christopher Abbott, Poor Things) learns that his long-missing father has been legally declared dead, he ventures off to his childhood home in Oregon with his wife and child to cleans things up and close this chapter of his life. Quickly upon arriving, the family is beset upon by a humanoid creature who preys upon them in one horrifying night, all while Blake slowly succumbs to a dangerous transformation caused by the creature.

As with The Invisible Man, Whannell, along with co-screenwriter Corbett Tuck, has found an interesting wrinkle in the werewolf mythos to expand upon, this time using it as a view to examine parenting and the effects one generation has on the next, for good and bad, often without complete intention. Blake’s upbringing was an unhappy one, and he tries to stop the cycle of pain with his own daughter. As he once came to terms with his father’s true nature, so too his daughter’s perception of him changes and morphs as she learns that she cannot entirely trust this transformed version of her father. Likewise, his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner, The Perks of Being a Wallflower), someone who is less accustomed to being the parent due to her distance from Blake and her busy work schedule, now has to step into a leadership role to protect her daughter and save her husband, all the while dealing with the beast hunting them throughout the night.

It’s clear that Whannell found inspiration in David Cronenberg’s The Fly, and I appreciated his depth of character for Blake during the transformation, particularly in how he showcased the interactions between Blake and his family from their perspective as well as his, as it slowly and continually distorts how he sees them. Also much like The Fly, the protagonist slowly shuffles over to Charlotte as the weight of keeping them safe rests with her now, and this adjustment works nicely to further develop her. Oftentimes, when we see strained relationships in films, one of the characters is usually written as The Asshole, but that’s not the case here. These are just two people who have become strained by life, and they’re trying to find their way back to each other as the film moves on.

The Wolf Man design may not work for some, but I found myself getting used to it rather easily here, with the focus being on a WOLF MAN more so than a WEREWOLF, which is an important distinction in how the creature is represented. While a Werewolf is more 4-legged beast, this film is more like the 1941 original with a humanoid man with wolf-like features (which I’ve often preferred), and I liked that he gradually took on more of that as the film went on, though I would’ve appreciated more exaggeration with the final look.

It’s obvious that Whannell’s strengths as a writer are in his characters, and I just wish his story had a bit more to it, because I felt as though I could’ve paused the film after the first scene and related every sequence to follow and been mostly correct (I hadn’t even seen a trailer). It just lacks the punch, narratively, that Whannell is going for, likely because it wears so many of its influences on its sleeve. While it’s not necessary to twist and turn the plot for satisfaction, it felt a little too familiar for its own good.

Overall, Wolf Man is an entertaining new take on another classic Universal Monster. Whannell has continued his streak of interesting projects imagined with a new hook, and this tale of fractured families and generational trauma works within the Wolf Man framework. While I wish this take on the creature stood out a bit more from the pack (almost made it through the review without a pun), it’s entertaining enough for what it is and comes with a mild recommendation.

3/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of Leigh Whannell’s Insidious: Chapter 3, click here.