Wolf Man -- Familiar Howls Echo Through An Uneven But Watchable Tale

Review by Jonathan Berk

(from left) Charlotte (Julia Garner), Blake (Christopher Abbott) and Ginger (Matilda Firth) in Wolf Man, directed by Leigh Whannell.

There are plenty of werewolf movies at this point, and the lore behind the creature has shifted in multiple ways. Universal brought us the monster in the 1941 film The Wolf Man, which has since become a major element of its stable of monsters. After several failed attempts at rebooting the Universal Monsters – which concluded with The Mummy – Blumhouse and writer-director Leigh Whannell's Invisible Man finally found a formula that worked. Thus, the second entry, Wolf Man, had a lot of hype around it. While it is by no means the trash that Blumhouse is known to drop in January, it doesn't live up to the quality of The Invisible Man or many of the werewolf movies that came before it.

Blake (Christopher Abbott) finally gets closure when a letter confirms that his estranged father has been declared dead after going missing in the Oregon woods. In an effort to fix his marital problems and tighten his family bonds, Blake suggests that Charlotte (Julia Garner) and their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) travel to his childhood farmhouse in rural Oregon. What begins as a potentially relaxing getaway from the big city quickly sours as the family is attacked by an unseen animal, and is forced to barricade themselves in the home for what could be the last night of their lives.

The script by Whannell and Corbett Tuck is admirable for attempting to craft a character-centered story. Abbott and Garner give tremendous performances that help carry the emotional weight of the narrative. The problem is that the script is a little weak in terms of logic and dialogue.

There is a lot of expository dialogue that almost feels like the characters are simply reading stage directions, as it is so blunt in its messaging. Even the idea that their marriage is on the rocks is simply told to us in an awkward scene before their trip to the farmhouse. It would have been fairly easy to suggest that their relationship was in jeopardy without having an awkward conversation. There is no visible evidence of it other than this kind of generic argument followed by his suggestion that they leave town. Their relationship status also doesn't feel necessary. The payoff of this setup element never quite hits in a way that makes sense of its inclusion in the story.

(from left) Ginger (Matilda Firth) and Blake (Christopher Abbott) in Wolf Man, directed by Leigh Whannell.

Firth and Abbott also have great chemistry. You believe their father-daughter connection, and that helps make many of the scenes pay off. Unfortunately, the film also features one of the clunkiest line deliveries one could imagine, punching audiences in the face with the theme so it would be impossible to miss. Other than that line feeling so painfully on the nose, it also raises the issue of the choice to have it in a werewolf tale.

The lore of werewolves varies from film to film and story to story. However, the reason the story has existed so long is the visceral nature of our inner beasts breaking out and running amok. The metaphor behind that transformation has taken on a variety of forms — from puberty, as in Teen Wolf and Ginger Snaps, to the emergence of the id, as in An American Werewolf in London or Wolf. In this instance, the transformation component of the tale doesn't feel as focused as many others. There is a reason, but it feels underdeveloped in comparison to other versions.

Much of the movie feels like a series of brainstorming concepts that never quite got worked through to their conclusion. Everything that is set up gets some kind of payoff, but it often feels like it takes major leaps to get there. The pacing of the film helps cover up some of these gaps as it rushes you to the next beat — but looking back, it is easy to notice how rushed certain elements feel.

Despite those story hiccups, the tension and overall feel of the film manage to help it limp to an overall satisfying experience. The cast and the world they inhabit are compelling. Some innovative POV shifts play on the werewolf mythology in interesting ways which also help set it apart from previous iterations of the story. Rarely do we get to experience the world through the perspective of the werewolf, and it is used to great effect here. It doesn't do a great job of handling the specific rules for this version, but the ones that are established are at least maintained.

Wolf Man is a mostly entertaining and watchable film for a January release. Yet, it doesn't deliver the same impressive quality as Invisible Man. Thus, it's hard not to feel a little disappointed. For every original element in this film, there are a few generic horror tropes that ultimately hurt the overall experience. If the actors weren't capable of carrying the weak script with their performances, the film would likely not work at all.

Wolf Man is in theaters on January 17. 

Rating: 3/5

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