'Wolf Man' Delivers Some Thought with Its Scares
The Wolf Man genre is difficult for me to get into. It's watered-down body horror that isn't grotesque, like John Carpenter's The Thing or a David Cronenberg film. 2025's Wolf Man does a better job than most adaptations as it's more of an allegory for domestic abuse than it is a film that's just purely disposable entertainment. The picture is mediocrely shot with too much dark lighting where instead of being scared, I had trouble seeing what's on the screen. There's also the overreliance on jump scares that lose their luster after seeing it a million times in other movies. Even with its tired conventions, Wolf Man is a noble update to an old monster genre.
The movie starts with a creepy atmospheric tone. A thunderstorm provides some bass to the theater's speakers. We then cut to a grouping of ants devouring what looks like either a fly or a mosquito. Maybe the bug will turn into something bigger. Who knows. We then cut to a father taking his son on a hunting trip. The father is your typical hard-ass who thinks hunting is something men should do. He doesn't instruct his son as much as he demands from him. It's easy to guess that either this guy is divorced or his wife doesn't get along with him.
The movie then cuts thirty years later to Chase (Christopher Abbott), a stay-at-home dad preparing breakfast for his daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). His wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), is a successful woman breaking the usual cinema gender dynamics of the husband going to work while the wife stays home. For all that masculine hunting training Daddy passed on to his son, it did nothing to make Chase any tougher. Chase didn't turn out to be a sissy like his father would fear. He's a supportive parent who is able to keep his family intact. Something tough guy daddy wasn't brave enough to do. The film does a decent job of taking its time to establish the characters without getting lost in where the horror lies. Without giving much away, it's more about the generational power of neglect that shapes the monsters we can become.
The film kicks into high gear on a family road trip. Somewhere on the road, the family sees a figure in the street, which causes Blake to veer and crash the truck. When the family wakes up, there's a mysterious wolf that tries to get at the family. In a tense segment where the family attempts to emerge from the car, they're able to dispose of the wolf. Unfortunately, it got a piece of Blake. Soon, the horror isn't about the animal we can't see, but the animal the father will turn into. To make matters worse, the family finds a cabin that they will soon be trapped in with the beast. When in the cabin, Blake confronts his traumatizing past, turning him into a wolf that could kill his family.
The Wolf Man's transformative effect is extremely well done. It doesn't resort to CGI nonsense but rather practical effects. When the Wolf Man turns, he really looks more like a human with dilated pupils, a low-hanging mouth, and greasy hair. It's similar to a raging human from 28 Days Later, just with a lot more hair. The effect is rather creepy as it's more grounded and believable. It looks more like what an actual Wolf Man would appear as. The effect is unsettling but not terrifying. Wolves aren't so scary since they're similar to dogs and who hates dogs? By making the wolf more of a man, the audience sees something that's tangible and gritty, resulting in something scarier than the typical werewolf pic. Couple that with a story that ties serious issues with the theme of losing control, and you get a pretty decent remake that works more for its undercurrent issues than its frequent cheap jump scares.
