Wolf Man – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 43 minutes, Director – Leigh Whannell

When travelling back to his childhood home in the middle of the woods, Blake (Christopher Abbott) is attacked by a mysterious animal. As the night goes on he begins to change, can he protect his wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth) from himself?

For the most part Wolf Man isn’t a bad film. It has some nice ideas, good central performances and it handles the werewolf transformation story relatively well. Yet, there’s something about the film that somewhat fumbles this key element as the highly stripped-back and traditional leanings sometimes make for an air of blandness for the proceedings. For those going in expecting another social horror from Leigh Whannell after 2020’s The Invisible Man, also made under Blumhouse, this is far from a repeat. Wolf Man is an upfront transformation tale through-and-through.

When family man Blake (Christopher Abbott) is attacked after a near-collision in the woods, returning to his childhood home in the wake of his father’s death (played by Sam Jaeger in the film’s 90s set opening scene), he quickly falls ill. Rapidly deteriorating his behaviour becomes more frantic, with wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and eight-year-old daughter (Matilda Firth) having to focus on the possible threat in the house with them, and the creature prowling outside ready to attack. While at times the intended gradual transformation can sometimes feel somewhat rushed when shown as happening almost all at once over a minimal number of hours there are some good ideas to be found. Eventually we get to see how Blake is seeing the world with his animalistic viewpoint compared to Charlotte as she tries to look after him, unsure as to what is happening.

There may not be many scares, despite some tension here and there, but Wolf Man works dramatically, while still landing firmly in the horror genre. There are likable elements to be found, particularly helped by Abbott and Garner’s performances; and indeed Firth puts in a good child performance, but occasionally things, especially in the first half, can feel very slow and over-familiar. You can see the classic influences on this film, and where it steps out to do something different, and overall it’s hard to argue that the film doesn’t achieve what it appears to set out to do in trying to make a traditional werewolf movie with one or two new ideas and elements, which work rather well.

There’s a successful claustrophobic feel in some scenes and visually there’s a good deal of detail when it comes to the changes in Abbott’s appearance. None more so than when you can see the inevitable, where from there the makeup department’s efforts pay off and then some with the changes and animalistic elements which begin to appear more rapidly – again, with the help of Abbott selling the role in these moments. There may still be elements of convention at play, but at least there’s still a likable sense to the film which stops it from dipping into a slightly staggering set of repeats as could so easily be the case. It takes a bit of time to get here after the wandering opening stages, but for the most part once in the house there’s enough to like and be amused by stylistically that Whannell and co manage to pull off this occasionally familiar, if perhaps forgettable, werewolf transformation flick.

Not a bad film, Wolf Man appears to achieve what it sets out to do. While sometimes the familiarity can be a bit too much and brings in a sense of blandness there are likable stylistic details at play that, even if lacking in scares, with the help of Garner and Abbot’s performances, makes for a lightly interesting and passable werewolf transformation film.