Wolf Man is a frustrating experience; a film that has all the elements to be great but falls short in almost every regard. After the sensational reimagining of 2020’s The Invisible Man, director-writer Leigh Whannell has returned to the Universal Pictures monster universe to tackle the Wolf Man.
Full on display is a commitment to practical craft – the production and creature design makes the movie feel a step above classic B-horror fodder. Unfortunately, the movie just isn’t scary and makes a mess of what subtext it wants to explore. Unlike the literal and metaphoric exploration of domestic abuse and gaslighting in
The Invisible Man, the Wolf Man is preoccupied with trying to be something deeper – a story about toxic masculinity, generational trauma, and in recent interviews, Whannell suggests a parallel of disease like ALS (oof!). Wolf Man might have been better off left in the woods.
