Wolf Man

Image credit: Wikipedia

Horror is a genre that is not to everyone’s taste – honestly, mine included. The funny thing about that though, is that it is the genre that I have the most fun talking about. For all their predictability, cliches, and often rigid cinematic and narrative progression, it’s what horror movies do and what they explore is that turns me into a gleeful mad scientist dissecting a freshly dug-up corpse.

As you can probably tell, the most recent film I sat down and watched was a horror. Partner and I curled up for a Friday night, choosing to spend it with Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man.

Upon receiving the news of the death of his father, Blake (Chrisopher Abbott) brings his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) to his family’s remote cabin in the Oregan woodlands. Upon arriving they get into a car accident and are then attacked by a strange monster. Blake receives a nasty scratch on his arm and while the monster stalks the permitter of the cabin, inside the family is suffering unknown horror as Blake slowly transforms into something bloodthirsty and unrecognisable.

Beginning with a flashback of little boy Blake hunting with his father and then jumping forward thirty years to adult Blake being the film’s protagonist, Whannell’s rendition of Wolf Man is an allegory and exploration into the many faces toxic masculinity and abusive parent-offspring relationships. Terrified of his own father as a boy, Blake tries to be the opposite for Ginger, but we are quickly shown that while the two have a very loving and close relationship, there is still fear that manifests itself in overprotectiveness and a quick temper. The closeness of Blake and Ginger also isolates Charlotte who, at the film’s beginning, is very career-oriented and disassociates when she’s at home. Tragically, during the second act when the horror and suspense is leading the charge, the forgotten love between husband and wife is remembered, which makes the climactic third act very moving despite its predictability. We’re not talking David Kronenberg’s The Fly moving, but still very sad and dispiriting.

Wolf-Man transformations have been spectacles of cinema for years from the original Wolf Man to the famous transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London. In this film the transformation is painfully slow and gruesome with bits of Blake slowly falling away: teeth, hair, hearing, and even mental comprehension. It’s a sad and horrifying balance of physical and mental metamorphosis that builds up a lot of the film’s suspense and terror.

Image credit: Fernby Films

With solid performances, well-timed suspense and jump scares, and interesting audio and visual techniques to convey the internal transformation of the protagonist, Wolf Man is a compelling film that makes the most of a minimal cast and predictable narrative.

Director: Leigh Whannell, 2025

Cast: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, Sam Jaeger, Zac Chandler & Benedict Hardie