“Wolf Man” (2025) is writer and director Leigh Whannell’s latest film about a family who get into a car accident in Oregon when Dad swerves to avoid a creature standing in the middle of the road. Though Dad, Blake (Christopher Abbott) manages to help his family to escape the vehicle without a scratch on them, he gets injured. They shelter in a nearby house, but this creature is stalking them. While protecting wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth)—reference to “Ginger Snaps” (2000), he begins to show disproportionate symptoms than just a cut from a piece of glass. Can he protect them from the beast outside and in?
Not counting “Werewolves” (2024), it has been a long time since we got another werewolf movie so we are overdue. Originally “Wolf Man” was supposed to be part of the Dark Universe, involving all the monsters from classic Universal Pictures films, starting with “The Mummy” (2017), but when a Tom Cruise movie tanks, people pay attention. So it is not a universe, but standalone films with “The Invisible Man” (2020), which Whannell also wrote and directed, being the prior one. People expecting Whannell to drink from the same well and comparing “Wolf Man” to “The Invisible Man” will be disappointed. They are forgetting that Whannell never does the same thing twice and caught movie lovers’ attention with “Upgrade” (2018).
Whannell decides to depart from the traditional lycanthrope lore and treat the narrative like folklore with a plausible scientific theory. There are no prose dumps explaining how the transformation happens from someone dressed in a white lab coat conveniently on the scene to educate the characters. There are no research montages. The characters do not watch movies so “werewolf” is never uttered. They are just a city family getting a trip that they were not expecting. Worst family vacation ever. If you are looking for deeper meaning, the theme of toxic masculinity is there, but easily overlooked since it is limited to the first act. Depending on how you feel about the term, it will be disappointing or a relief. If you just want a monster movie, you get it. While there are jump scares, the terror is in seeing a kind, loving person getting obliterated and being someone who can feel the world being ripped away from him. While the film is predictable, the strongest part of “Wolf Man” is the cast’s acting talent and genuinely caring for the family.
Blake starts off 2025 right as best father and husband ever. He is the primary parent and is far from perfect, but he is doing his best to break generational curses of patriarchy and love his family in a nurturing way. It is not easy acting under layers of practical effects, but Abbott conveys so much emotion, and hopefully regardless of how people feel about “Wolf Man,” people will appreciate his skill at projecting pathos and love. Blake feels as if he is dying but trying to keep it together to save his family from an unknown threat. By showing how Blake sees and hears the world from a distorted perspective proportional to the infection’s progression, Whannell complements Abbott’s performance, and there is nothing like it. It feels as if it exists in the same world as “Doctor Sleep” (2019). As he becomes the titular monster, Whannell moves the camera as if Blake is walking on a swaying boat and is adrift out to sea.
Whannell did a great job writing Charlotte. Imagine Charlotte as Martha’s unofficial backstory to “The Room Next Door” (2024), and it wins hands down. As the primary breadwinner, it would not be natural for her to just let Blake do all the heavy lifting, and even though she is considerably outmatched, homegirl was fighting. She did not hide with her daughter and is an effective protector understudy. There is also this tension of tending to a sick husband and slowly realizing that doing so could be a bad idea. Unlike “The Shining” (1980), she is not a woman finally realizing that her husband is abusive. She is a woman realizing that there is a line where death will do them part, and she makes tough decisions for her family.
Ginger is a kid so she does annoying, dumb things but is not unsympathetic though sometimes the adults’ responsiveness to her felt as if it could get them all killed, and they needed to steer the ship more. There is this adorable daddy daughter dynamic that plays a pivotal role in the denouement, which may suggest one of two things: she is supernatural, or she is just really connected to her dad. Firth is a Brit, and damn, they start those actors out young because there was no trace of an accent. She does not appear to be related to Colin Firth.
For those who are not there for the story and are just there for gore, there is plenty of it. This beastie is animalistic in his mannerism, especially how he treats his own body. It is an unrelenting body horror film without the usual werewolf CGI. People with unrealistic body images for lycanthropes will be disappointed. It is realistic without feeling cheap. Remember that there are two monsters, and the show down is satisfying. The sound effects are terrific because the sounds they emit are unquestionably not normal, but it is not so strange that it feels implausible. January can be a real let down for horror films. Don’t forget about how much of a mess “Night Swim” (2024) was despite its potential, and “Glass” (2019) was disappointing and anticlimactic. This one was solid albeit ten to fifteen minutes longer than necessary.
While a sequel feels unnecessary, and there are no post credit scenes, there is room for one, and even a sequel. It does have derivative moments that feel pulled from “A Quiet Place” franchise from the basement set up to the strain of not making any sound. It is utterly original for forsaking the urban setting and restricting it to an isolated, limited location nestled in the most verdant, lush natural setting. The three buildings, the house, the farmhouse and green house, are almost like individual characters. The most surprising evocative scene is in the farmhouse because the lupine’s natural advantage over the human beings seems impossible to overcome.
While the ending is not ambiguous, “Wolf Man” will have audiences debating one pivotal point: would Blake kill his family? It is completely reasonable when Charlotte and Ginger start to distance themselves from Blake, but some of his sudden movements could be interpreted as being drawn to them and trying to show affection instead of attacking. This gray area is what makes the story into a tragedy. In other werewolf movies, it is obvious that the infected must be killed because he is not sentient enough to stop rampaging and unintentionally is creating more monsters. Here it feels mournful whether to accept his condition or kill him. It should be hard, especially since Blake is the real deal.
What “Wolf Man” lacks in getting off the well-worn predictable tracks of its story, it more than makes up for in the cast’s chemistry, Whannell’s skill behind the camera and fecund locations. It is January so do not expect it to change your life, but it is an entertaining, poignant ride that does the job without changing the world.
