Director
Leigh Whannell
(THE INVISIBLE MAN)

Starring
Christopher Abbot, Julia Gardner and Matilda Firth

Wolf Man is the newest iteration of the Werewolf genre, co-written and directed by the famed horror maven Leigh Whannell (of Saw fame). The film emerges as an ambitious blend of gothic horror and modern cinematic spectacle, with a solid cast led by Christopher Abbott in the titular role, this film seeks to rekindle the terror and tragedy of its classic predecessors while offering fresh perspectives on the human element behind the transformation from man to wolf.

Wolf Man takes us into the lives of Blake, a stay-at-home Dad, and his workaholic wife Charlotte (Ozark’s Julia Garner), who along with their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) venture to rural Oregon to clean out the estate of Blake’s long estranged father who has recently been declared deceased after going missing years earlier.  Staying true to the core narrative of the genre, the story centers on Blake’s spiral into lycanthropy after a fateful encounter in the woods, however this version delves deeper into themes of family and communication.  The screenplay, written by Whannell and his wife Corbett Tuck (in her first writing credit) juxtaposes the visceral horror of transformation with more meaningful moments of introspection. The protagonist’s struggle to reconcile his humanity with his monstrous instincts is rendered with emotional depth, making the film as much a psychological drama as it is a horror thriller.

Abbott delivers a strong performance, shifting seamlessly between vulnerability and ferocity, making his descent into lycanthropy both tragic and terrifying. The supporting cast provide decent performances, though some characters feel underdeveloped overall. Too many characters are introduced for just a brief moment, leaving long stints with the core trio but not a lot of story development to support them.

Visually, the production design team does well at turning New Zealand’s North Island into Oregon USA, however the darkness of a film overall becomes overbearing after some time. Likewise, the sound mixing is painful, with an unbalanced focus on making your ears bleed every time the films score kicks into gear, by then end I was literally covering my ears for some relief.

While Wolf Man excels in some areas, it often falters in its pacing and writing. The film’s second act drags as it overindulges in exposition, detracting from the main narrative. At the end of the day there’s only so many times you can see a family run between a house and a car, and a car and a house, then a house and a barn……you get the gist. It was disappointing how little story development there was throughout the film, with a number of plot holes and more questions than answers in the end. Whannell and Tuck had a novel idea at reworking a cliché, but evidently ran out of ideas to add to it. Some of the dialogue is painful and overtly trying to be more meaningful than it actually is. Whannell has made incredible waves in the horror genre, and the last major film he wrote and directed (The Invisible Man) was brilliant and suspenseful, but this one is just missing that magic, or anything to actually sustain your interest.

Overall, there were elements of Wolf Man that were impressive, but there just weren’t enough of them to sustain a film, which is a real shame for those of us who have been hanging to sink our teeth into this one for some time.

WOLF MAN is in cinemas January 16.