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Go behind the scenes of Wolf Man with director Leigh Whannell and the cast
Featurette: Universal Pictures / Blumhouse

Wolf Man (2025)
Directed by Leigh Whannell
Rated R
Bitten 17 January 2025
#WolfManMovie

Leigh Whannel’s Wolf Man is a numbingly bland addition to the wayward collection of Universal’s horror classics updates.

Reality Bites

The idea was to recast the wolf man story in modern times and with a grounded sense of reality.

Whannel takes a slow-burn approach to Wolf Man; title cards tell of an Oregon hiker who disappeared and feared fell victim to an animal bite and what the indigenous people call "Face of the Wolf." Whannel then establishes a father-son relationship in 1995 central Oregon. The father tries to impart survival skills to his son while they’re out deer hunting. He’s intimidating and stern, but it seems clear he loves his son. And then they encounter an inhuman, but humanlike creature. Savage. Brutal. Maybe it’s that lost hiker.

It’s a smart, old-school approach to keep the imagery of the wolf man (actually, there are a few of them) either at a distance, obscured or offscreen, with only the growls to create the atmosphere. The big reveal (such as it is) is saved for later, as the tensions mount.

After that disturbing incident, the movie shifts to 30 years later, modern times. Blake, that son, is now himself married and with a daughter. He receives a notice his father is presumed dead. He can’t be found, much like that previously mentioned hiker.

So, Blake (Christopher Abbott, Poor Things) uses it as a family bonding opportunity to take his wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner, Ozark), and daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth, Subservience), to visit the family cabin and tend to those final duties.

World Building

With the slow-paced start, Whannel establishes the characters, builds the family dynamics and creates an interesting emotional through-line. There’s a running joke between father and daughter. She can read his mind. What is he thinking? How much he loves his daughter with all his heart.

It’s a nice touch and it ties into what could be considered another old-school filmmaking element: the payoff. But, amid the unfolding horror, it’s almost too subtle in its execution. The payoff, like so much of Wolf Man, lacks punch.

And that’s where the biggest frustrations with this Wolf Man start to boil over. Whannel and Universal (through the Blumhouse shingle) have taken the "grounded in reality" approach too far here.

Unlike prior iterations, wherein the protagonist repeatedly experiences the torturous transition between human and wolf and back again, in Wolf Man it is instead a slow, singular transformation from human to wolf man. It’s a permanent change that leaves the human as "missing" in the public’s mind.

Virtually everything is too restrained. Including the emotions.

There is absolutely no lore. Not much horror.

No full moons. No silver bullets. No curses. No gypsies. Not even much howling.

The biggest problem: there’s not much fun, either.

And, despite all that work in relationship building, those relationships ultimately fall flat heading to the conclusion and a final scene that is telegraphed in the opening dialogue. There’s talk of those Oregon woods being a beautiful and dangerous place, but even the cinematography fails the words. That’s all the more confounding considering the movie was shot using the lush landscape of Ireland as a stand-in for Oregon.

Disappearing Thrills

In 2020, Leigh Whannell was hailed as a minor hero following the success of his modern version of The Invisible Man. Albeit itself a bland exercise, it drew attention with the inclusion of contemporary themes, including privacy and social horror. Most importantly, it made some money. It was in stark contrast to the big-budget, multiverse-style Mummy starring Tom Cruise in 2017.

And so it is, in the space of three years and two movies, an entire "universe" shift was made with the new approach no better thought out than the original. It’s frustrating to see Universal do this to one of its core treasure troves. The idea of presenting classic horror stories through a more hardened lens of reality is a fair idea. But so far, it also sucks all the eeriness and fun out of the experience.

It seems part of the routine now is to resurrect discussions of The Dark Universe. No title card, no reference whatsoever is made here to that hugely ambitious plan to create an interconnected cinematic universe out of all the classic Universal horror characters. Instead, Wolf Man is released under the low-budget Blumhouse shingle.

Considering the ambitious vision that was driving The Mummy, it’s a shame its (still deserved) commercial failure also undermined the greater creative possibilities. Now, things have been pared back to being merely an exercises in low-budget moviemaking rather than exciting explorations of old horror classics shown under a fresh light. Instead of pulling a 180, Universal should’ve slowed its roll and considered a middle ground. Or, even less dramatically, a creative course correction within the Dark Universe. Warner Bros. has found gargantuan success with its reimagining of Kong and Godzilla and that whole universe of megamonsters. Universal has been too rash with the Dark Universe whiplash strategies.

It’s all the more painful, then, to see even the forthcoming "Dark Universe" Universal Orlando theme park has shifted slightly from that original Dark Universe mindset into something perhaps too familiar on the "classic" end.

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.