Wolf Man (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – A family at a remote farmhouse is attacked by an unseen animal, but as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognizable.

My Take – While the proposed Dark Universe, a modern cinematic shared universe consisting of classic Universal Monsters, went bust right from the first film, The Mummy (2017), writer-director Leigh Whannell‘s 2020 reboot of the 1933 film, The Invisible Man, proved how well the established lore can also work in a uniquely contained set-up that spoke to still relevant themes and still be mined for well-executed scares.

A massive critical and commercial success story that opened the door to his next outing five years later, a second reboot of The Wolf Man (1941), following the 2010 released Joe Johnston directed star-studded financial disappointment.

Like his previous film, this one too pulls the classic story to the present day, dramatically re-imagines it and contains an atmosphere that offers some unique settings. However, the transition, this time around, isn’t quite as smooth.

Though, it is moderately entertaining with creative touches that show what a filmmaker can do when armed with a high-concept horror premise, it plays a little too safe and lacks the expected thematic clarity and, therefore, its staying power.

Yes, it has some intriguing ideas, but, ultimately, director Whannell falls short of recreating the levels of suspense, creativity and energy he achieved in the 2020 remake. In his struggle to capitalize on the source material, he has delivered something that works much more like a straightforward ‘infected’ film than anything resembling a werewolf film. But with barely any infected in it, it just feels dull and drawn out.

Indeed, the potential for something compelling is always present, but handicapped by some strange directions the film heads in and a lack of any real set pieces, it never feels fully realized, leaving the end result all the more disappointing. Personally, I had high hopes for this one, but sadly, it fails to meet the level of quality we’ve come to expect from Blumhouse’s Universal horror revival.

Beginning in 1995, the story follows a young Blake Lovell (Zac Chandler), who lives with his emotionally cold single father Grady (Sam Jaeger) in the remote mountains of Oregon, where a hiker’s vanishing has sparked a speculation about a virus linked to the region’s wildlife. During a hunting trip in the area, the two even end up encountering a strange creature in the woods, one Grady is certain is the fabled missing hiker the local indigenous population claim has “the face of the wolf.”

Thirty years later, an adult, Blake (Christopher Abbott) is a city-dweller who’s intentionally avoided his dad’s macho, self-reliant lifestyle. But despite still haunted by his childhood memories, Blake, a writer who is between jobs, is happy at being stay-at-home girl dad to his daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth), delighted in carrying her big pink teddy bears and letting his little girl put lipstick on him for fun, as his workaholic journalist Charlotte (Julia Garner) acts as the breadwinner.

But when Blake receives official confirmation that Grady has finally been declared dead after a long disappearance and the three head out to clear out his dad’s house, the first time he’s returned to the area in years. Unfortunately for them, there’s still a dangerous critter roaming around, and it’s out for blood. And after it attacks Blake, he starts exhibiting frightening symptoms, leaving him to simultaneously try to protect his wife and child from whatever it is that’s trying to get into the house and the very monster he himself is becoming.

Once Blake starts to transform into exactly what his dad wanted to protect him from, director Whannell expertly uses sound design, perspective and effects to create some memorable moments. Like the one in which we see what the wolf man sees — distorted, trippy visions, human language no longer making sense. But while this interpretation runs a brisk 103 minutes, it also feels much longer due to the pacing.

The action begins about fifteen minutes into the film, but everything that follows feels dragged out. The transformation takes up the rest of the runtime in a slow and painful process that fails to effectively set the stage for what’s to come.

The singular focus of the extended transformation may have been a great idea on paper – after all, it worked wonders for filmmaker David Cronenberg’s classic, The Fly (1986), but in doing this, it loses the tragedy and the emotion that has been long associated with the character.

Stripped of much of the traditional and popular Lycanthropic lore, the creatures on screen barely even resemble wolves except for some unruly hair and a couple of pointy teeth. What made director Whannell’s The Invisible Man so effective was the perfect pairing of monster and metaphor, the insanity of a man who can only be sensed, not seen, stalking his victim of domestic abuse.

But the script here, written by Leigh Whannell and Corbett Tuck is more of a humdrum. Blake’s metamorphosis represents multiple things like generational trauma, both passing it on and fighting against it; degenerative disease; the breakdown of a relationship. Each are meaty, emotional subjects, and Blake’s gradual shift into something that may severe his connection to his family aim to invoke fear.

But the issue is the film’s inconsistency in how it plays into everything. Particularly, Charlotte’s reaction to her husband’s increasingly animalistic appearance that veers from pity and understanding to all-out screaming in ways that don’t always make sense.

Adding to the disappointment is that it contains one of the worst modern takes on a werewolf design. This lack of commitment to fully realizing the creature diminishes the film’s impact. The final creature design comes across as half-hearted and messy, undermining the suspense and horror the film aims to deliver.

Performance wise, Christopher Abbott is grounded and committed from the start. Abbott commits entirely to playing a loving father with darkness lurking within, even before he turns, well. Julia Garner, is always good, but even she needs enough to work with. Given even less to work with as the under-written Charlotte, Garner suffers the most of all from the film’s lack of interest in creating a proper setup. Matilda Firth is charming enough. Sam Jaeger is excellent in his limited screen time. On the whole, ‘Wolf Man‘ is a watchable but an unsatisfying and disappointing take on the classic monster.