Following the failed attempt of Universal’s Dark Universe – a shared cinematic universe centered on the Universal Monsters that only lasted with one movie, 2017’s The Mummy – Universal shifted its focus to standalone films that would reimagine their iconic creations whilst maintaining their horror roots. This is what writer/director Leigh Whannell and producer Jason Blum embraced when they made 2020’s The Invisible Man, which was not only scary, but was made with such craft and integrate its horror concept with themes on domestic abuse. As Whannell’s latest is a present-day reboot of 1941’s The Wolf Man, does he have more to say than it isn’t easy being furry?
With a script that he co-wrote with Corbett Tuck, Whannell’s Wolf Man follows Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott) who receives a death certificate for his father, who went missing. Now with keys to his childhood home in Oregon, he decides to relocate there to repair his relationship with his workaholic wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and build a stronger family bond with their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). However, once they reach their destination, Blake has to protect the only family he has left from a werewolf, only to become infected and slowly transform into the creature.
The problem you immediately have is that not only another reboot with the Universal property, but also there have been countless movies, whether good or bad, have put their own concept of the werewolf. In the case of Whannell’s film, it has more in common with John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps, which was about a slow-burning Lycan transformation that covers the whole movie. Both films obviously owe a debt to David Cronenberg’s masterful remake of The Fly, but while Ginger Snaps knew what it wanted to say, Wolf Man suffers from an identity crisis.
Prior to Whannell’s involvement, there was going to be a new Wolf Man film with Derek Cianfrance to direct, with Ryan Gosling set to play the titular creature. This obviously would have been a different beast, and whilst Whannell is a safe pair of hands since he knows his way around horror, he doesn’t quite find the story that balances the drama and mystery that he previously achieved with The Invisible Man. Initially, there is the attempt of a dramatic hook with the theme of a problematic family as seen in the prologue featuring Blake’s estranged relationship with his father, as well as the main narrative that sets up the troubles Blake has with his own family.
However, once a car accident occurs that sets the horror in motion, whatever ideas Whannell had planned seem to get lost. Not entirely a disaster as at its center, there is a gnarly body horror transformation that blends gory prosthetic work and impressive camera work that one would expect from the director, while the central performances of Abbott, Garner and Firth give it some dramatic tension. And yet, as the story unfolds and the more that we see of Abbott’s Blake losing his humanity, there is the realization that this Wolf Man suffers from a similar fate that Benicio del Toro went through when he was the Wolf Man in 2010, as both versions suffer from similar narrative problems. Once again, the identity crisis looms large here.
