Werewolves, like vampires, can be difficult to make interesting these days. So much has already been done, how do you come up with something new? Wolf Man surprisingly succeeds at interpreting the werewolf in a new and interesting way but what’s even more surprising is that it’s really boring.

With the hopes of reconnecting with them, Blake (Christopher Abbott) brings his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and his daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) to his rural childhood home for the weekend. On the way there, Blake is attacked by a strange creature. When they arrive the trio barricade the house but, as the night progresses, they realise that the real danger could be a lot closer than they presumed.

The Characters

On paper, the cast of Wolf Man really work. In the opening, we learn that as a child Blake’s father was abusive, which led to him developing anger issues in adulthood. He adores his daughter and is determined to give her an upbringing more loving than the one he got.

Charlotte is a workaholic who feels she could be a better mother as her bond with Ginger isn’t as strong as the one Blake has with her.

These two are ripe for a horror story; they’re parents who’re confronted by a force that inhibits their parenting abilities (one more explicitly than the other). They wouldn’t make the film as good as The Invisible Man but they would still make it compelling, which would be noteworthy for a film about such a generic creature.

Unfortunately, the writing takes little to no advantage of these vulnerabilities.

In the house, Blake becomes the wolf man in a transformation that is gradual and clearly inspired by Cronenberg’s The Fly. Unlike Seth Brundle’s metamorphosis, which takes weeks, Blake’s only takes hours.

The potential for drama in Charlotte and Ginger’s witnessing of their father’s deterioration goes completely unrealised. The shift from man to animal is almost instantaneous, allowing no time to reflect or recognise the change that’s just occurred.

Equally, Charlotte’s effort to reconnect with Ginger gets almost no attention. She and Lance discuss it in the first act so we know it’s a problem for her but it’s never addressed again. Even as she protects Ginger as Lance transforms, there’s no moment when she and Ginger acknowledge a change in their dynamic.

This leaves you thinking that nothing is accomplished in the end and that there’s no point to Lance and Charlotte as characters, and you could be right.

With a premise as simple as Wolf Man’s, how the characters change should be relatively blatant because it’s only in them that a story about a werewolf can create dimension.

The Horror

This, I’m embarrassed to say, is the first Wolf Man I’ve ever seen. I was always familiar with the creature thanks to mass media but never got round to seeing any of the previous films. After watching this version, I had to do some googling to verify the history of the character. Once I was updated, I frankly had more appreciation for this recent take.

Blake’s wolfman is not your typical werewolf. In fact, it could be argued he’s not technically a werewolf but a hybrid beast that can only be described as a ‘wolf man.’ 

Its humanoid form and lack of canine features may not be what people want in their lycanthrope but in my view, the design highlights Blake’s loss of humanity.

No full moons, no silver bullets and no changing back. This wolfman is a biological condition that can’t be reversed. I’d argue that this is a good modern interpretation of the lycanthrope premise, which makes the writing even more frustrating. Seeing a loved one devolve is painful enough but seeing them devolve permanently is heartbreaking. This is yet another angle the writing doesn’t exploit.

One angle that Wolf Man does exploit fortunately is the body horror. It could’ve gone further in my opinion but the falling teeth, splintering fingernails and growing jawbones will make the squeamish cringe.

If this is one of a series of modern takes on the Universal monsters, then I want to see more. Like I said, making werewolves interesting is hard these days and despite its writing, Wolf Man should be applauded for abandoning the werewolf’s supernatural ties and embracing the biological. It’s the first time I’ve seen it done anyway.

I want to see Dracula, Frankenstein, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and even the Phantom of the Opera brought to the world as we know it today, and I really hope this little blip doesn’t prevent us from seeing all that.

Don’t want to do this but I must give Wolf Man a mediocre 6 out of 10.