150 Word Review: 'Wolf Man' (2025)
I saw the best monsters of my generation destroyed by so-so SFX
Director Leigh Whannell's 2020 remake of The Invisible Man turned Univeral’s famous adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic into a modern scary story about surveillance and abuse. His follow-up, Wolf Man, isn't as fresh.
Inspired by 1941's The Wolf Man, this update opens on a struggling marriage—Christopher Abbott is a stay-at-home dad devoted to his daughter, and Julia Garner is his workaholic wife. One day, he learns he's inherited a creepy cabin in the dark woods from his father, a survivalist who disappeared. The family moves. Dad gets clawed. Then everything goes to the dogs.
Whannell's moonlit horror explores childhood trauma but fails in one critical regard: the werewolves are boring. They have Lon Cheney Jr’s famous underbite, but the monsters are uninspired. Abbott's character looks like he's rotting. It's disturbing, but a werewolf movie without a memorable transformation scene is like a mafia movie without pasta. You gotta have it.
Watch This, Not That: ‘Werewolves Within’ (2021)
I appreciated the low budget 'Blackout', different in that it's a werewolf drama with a helluva ending scene - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23186596/
That lack of basketball dunks really left this film wanting