Despite a great premise and spin on the familiar concept, Wolf Man fails to execute it.
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I'm big fan of filmmaker Leigh Whannell. While he's only directed 4 films to date, Whannell is also the writer behind a number of beloved modern horror franchises including Saw and Insidious. But instead of branching out into bigger things like Saw director James Wan, Whannell has been content to make solid horror thrillers including two underrated gems (Upgrade and The Invisible Man). Said movies are well written, brilliantly shot, and superbly acted. Which means Whannell should be the best guy to continue this reimagining of the Universal monsters...right?
The Setup
The film centers around Blake, a stay-at-home dad who's hoping to reconnect with his wife and daughter. When his father passes away and bequeaths Blake his old cabin, Blake convinces his family to join him and help him clear it out. Plans which immediately go to hell when their vehicle is attacked by a vicious and unpredictable predator.
Wolf Man is one of my most frustrating movie experiences this year. There's a lot of reasons. The first is that I wanted this movie to be good and it's not, but it's deeper than that. Before this movie was released there was a lot of discussion about the "wolf man" design. When people saw it, they didn't like it and folks used that to portend something bad about the finished product. Which is something I don't like because a screen shot can't tell you anything about a movie without context. Killers of the Flower Moon had a single screenshot for almost its entire production and the movie turned out great.
So Wolf Man being bad gives the wrong kind of folks ammunition to say, "I was right."
The second and biggest reason this movie is so disappointing is that Leigh Whannell's last movie knew how to tell this kind of story.
The best idea Whannell had with The Invisible Man is that the story was told from a victim's perspective. Our lead played by Elisabeth Moss was an emotionally and physical abused woman who escaped her partner only to be pursued by him as "The Invisible Man."
And Wolf Man looks/feels primed to tell a similar story. Our lead Blake, played by Christopher Abbott, is introduced going through a very traumatic and toxic childhood environment with his survivalist father. So all of the sudden dad dies, and now the monster attacking his family looks like him.
And Wolf Man looks/feels primed to tell a similar story. Our lead Blake, played by Christopher Abbott, is introduced going through a very traumatic and toxic childhood environment with his survivalist father. So all of the sudden dad dies, and now the monster attacking his family looks like him.
Sounds like we've got a solid metaphor for toxic masculinity and how difficult it can be to escape those thoughts/tendencies, especially when you're back in the environment that created them or imparted them upon you. Throw in some marital troubles that'll turn up the pressure and we've got ourselves a movie. A man fighting himself and his father so the sake of his family. Right?
Well no. For a couple reasons. The first is that the backstory portion of the movie is in a giant hurry and kinda drops all of its exposition up front in the most awkward way possible. Our married couple Blake and Charlotte at worst, look like a married couple going through the motions off in their own worlds. Not uncommon. But all of the sudden Blake meets his wife for lunch and talks about how they're in crisis, which we don't have evidence for. Nor do we really hear or see anything from Charlotte's perspective on this. It's all through Blake.
But once the monster shows up, the perspective shifts almost entirely to Charlotte's perspective in a survival horror setting, with her attempts to keep a changing Blake at bay with her daughter in tow. Does this say anything new about Charlotte? Well it's all new because we don't have any pre-conceived notions of her.
Basically they've got a similar thematic setup to The Invisible Man and focus on all of the chase sequences and jump scares, versus that movie's emphasis on character and relationships.
Which is a shame because the film has a number of novel ideas I wish had either more time or a better movie conveying them.
For instance, when he first begins to transform, Blake begins to see things through this neon night vision haze to the point that he can't understand what his wife is saying, even if it is very loving and kind. Great bit of visual flair and metaphorical reinforcement. Only that metaphor gets ignored as the film progresses and Blake becomes the "Wolf man."
Likewise, the chase sequences involving the monster are genuinely tense and make great use of limited lighting to reinforce the tension while keeping things easy to follow. Not a lot of movies succeed in that regard nowadays but this one does.
Unfortunately the lack of emotional development and investment means the film's end result lands with thud versus something empowering or profound (which is was clearly going for).
The Verdict: Disappointing
Despite a great premise and spin on the familiar concept, Wolf Man fails to execute it. 4/10
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