In 2017, Universal Pictures launched a reboot of their Universal Monsters franchise titled Dark Universe. This started with 'The Mummy', which was panned by critics and underperformed at the box office, in turn cancelling all future plans for this new franchise. The sheer number of films they announced before 'The Mummy' even hit cinemas meant that a lot of these projects were already in development and morphed into other works - most notably 'The Invisible Man', which released in 2020 to incredible reviews and showed the potential for these classic monsters to be reinvented for modern audiences while proving that a shared universe was the right move for these characters. After proving himself with this film, Aussie director Leigh Whannell was tasked by Universal to bring another iconic monster to modern audiences - this time tackling the 'Wolf Man'.
SWITCH: 'WOLF MAN' TRAILER
The film follows Blake (Christopher Abbott, 'Kraven the Hunter', 'Poor Things') returning to his father's home in Oregon in the United States. Living there as a child, they were hunting together m one day when they spotted a creature that was, well, a wolf man! Now that his father has died, he takes along his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner, 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower', 'The Royal Hotel'), who has become a workaholic which has caused tension in their relationship and with their daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth, 'Disenchanted', 'Subservience')... to tie up any loose ends. On the drive there, they're attacked by a creature similar to the one Blake saw as a child, but this time the creature claws Blake and he is now transforming into the 'Wolf Man'.
Any creativity present in Whannell's 'The Invisible Man' feels thrown out and in its place is a paint-by-numbers, bland horror venture. It's lacking scares, with the creature design being one of the ugliest in recent memory. A werewolf creature isn't hard to pull off, and in what I imagine is an attempt to subvert expectations, the design here is more like someone with a skin condition. It does not evoke 'Wolf Man' and feels like a massive missed opportunity at a good body horror.
Any creativity present in Whannell's 'The Invisible Man' feels thrown out and in its place is a paint-by-numbers, bland horror venture. It's lacking scares, with the creature design being one of the ugliest in recent memory.
The film also feels the need to be a family drama, but again fails at every turn. The drama is not compelling, and the characters are so unlikable that any emotional investment is lost. Everything here just amounts to nothing, with the pacing being another massive issue. The titular 'Wolf Man' is not in the bulk of the run time and, when revealed, adds nothing - making both the horror and story so incredibly lacking. It doesn't feel like this is a creative director being given much control but instead feels like a studio pushing a director to make a generic product.
'Wolf Man' is a prime example of bad horror. It doesn't have a creative bone in its body; it's just moving pictures before your eyes. The creature work is lacklustre, making this all boil down to an unworthwhile and boring experience.