Wolf Man

Well give him his due, Leigh Whannell made sure his name appears on screen often enough, but sadly what's he striven to churn out here is nothing remotely innovative. It's all about "Blake" (Christopher Abbott) who's been estranged from his rather militaristic dad for as long as he's been an adult. He lives, albeit increasingly distantly, with his wife "Charlotte" (Julia Garner) and daughter "Ginger" (Matilda Firth) in the big city but when his father is declared legally dead, decides it's a great opportunity to visit the wilderness of Oregon to sort through his belongings. Off they set through the forest driving a removals van, in the dark, with no real idea where they are going. By pure fluke, they encounter "Derek" (Benedict Hardie) who remembers "Blake" as a child and offers to guide them. Next thing there's an apparition, then loads of broken branches before a scene reminiscent of "Jurassic Park" (1993) with their van precariously perched half way up (or down) a tree. There's something menacing out there and they have to make it to the safety of the house. Easier said than done, though, as en route poor old "Blake" gets himself scratched. Once in the house, they hope to sit it out - but is their enemy inside this iron-bar clad house, or...? At times it is quite tensely directed using the forest, the darkness and cracking-branch audio to decent effect, but the dialogue is inane and it suffers from a common flaw amongst horror films of late. The characters make the most ridiculous of decisions. Nobody in their right mind would go a-wandering through the woods at night at the best of times. I know they are both supposed to be writers, so unlikely to be overly tapped into popular culture, but surely one of them would have watched an horror movie in their lives and realised the stupidity of that and virtually all of their other courses of action. On that front, it's "Charlotte" who gets the gong for being the daftest of the daft. The make-up, prosthetics and visual effects folks deserve some plaudits here on their well crafted work as the film advances, but as for the remainder. Well it's a just another log cabin in the woods style of short story that struggles to sustain itself into a feature length movie we haven't seen dozens of times before.

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/wolf-man-review-a-hollow-howl-in-the-dark/ "Wolf Man turns out to be a missed opportunity for Leigh Whannell, who fails to replicate the technical and narrative success of The Invisible Man. While it features solid performances, particularly from Julia Garner, and some technically impressive moments, the movie suffers from a shockingly superficial script, a shocking lack of emotional impact, and incomprehensible levels of darkness. It feels fragmented and hollow, failing to explore its thematic potential or create a meaningful connection with its audience. Praise is due to the makeup, sound design, and practical effects teams, but unfortunately, they aren't enough to overcome the bleak letdown." Rating: C-

**_More man than wolf in the Oregon wilderness_** A couple living in San Francisco (Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner) with their little daughter inherit a farmhouse in remote central Oregon. They decide to go there to reconnect as a family, but it turns out that the local talk of a mysterious animalistic humanoid lurking in the forest is real. “Wolf Man” (2025) is Universal’s attempt to rekindle their classic 1941 monster utilizing Leigh Whannell as writer/director, fresh off his success with “The Invisible Man.” Unfortunately, it bombed at the box office. What went wrong? The prologue and first act are great, but the last hour morphs into a slow-burn ‘confined location’ flick, similar to the farmhouse situation in the classic “Night of the Living Dead.” Yet “Night” had several characters to work with to keep the story compelling whereas “Wolf Man” only has the three protagonists: the husband, wife and daughter. The ‘werewolf vision’ is well done, but don’t expect a draw-dropping metamorphosis sequence, like in many other such flicks. I didn’t mind because Whannell was obviously shooting for a realistic take on the topic, along the lines of Jack Nicholson’s “Wolf” from three decades earlier. I guess the males morphing into wolfish men could be viewed as a metaphor for ‘toxic masculinity,’ which is interesting (let’s not pretend like some relationships aren’t destroyed for this very reason, whether father/son or husband/wife). Regrettably, Julia Garner isn’t very interesting on the feminine front, although she’s a’right. The flick needed someone of the caliber of Joelle Westwood in the indie “The Hunting” from four years prior. It runs 1 hour, 43 minutes (with 12 minutes of that being closing credits); and was shot in New Zealand with the forest scenes done around Queenstown on the South Island and the farmhouse scenes done at the studio in Wellington on the North Island. GRADE: B-