Director: Leigh Whannell
Actors: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, Sam Jaeger
Genre: Horror
Rating: MA
‘Wolf Man’ is Whannell’s follow-up to 2020’s ‘The Invisible
Man’ and is another remake of one of the original horror films, 1941’s ‘The Wolf
Man’. We’re introduced to Blake and his father Grady (Jaeger), living in the
remote Oregon wilderness (actually filmed on New Zealand’s north island, hence
the beauty!) where there’s stories of an “animal-borne disease”… We then skip
forward 30 years to see adult Blake (Abbott), his wife Charlotte (Garner) and
their daughter Ginger (Firth), who then travel back to Oregon.
The film does well to focus primarily on these 3 main
characters, with few others given screentime – only a couple of establishing scenes
in the city, before they’re in the woods. Once they are, things happen quickly –
much like the film, which is only 100min. There’s not heaps of jump scares, but
really good use of prosthetics and practical effects (i.e. limited CGI) for the
transformation, which borrows a bit from ‘An American Werewolf in London’.
There is still plenty of gross/squirmy moments, some of which
are new to the werewolf story. It’s good to only have 4 characters to follow
and it effectively all unfolds on one night. It’s held together by the connection
of the 3 family members as they try to navigate the attack. Very dark
(literally) in parts, giving more effect to his heightened senses. By no means
a redefining of the werewolf character, but not a waste of time either.
Overall: taught non-CGI werewolf thriller
Gav's Rating: 3 stars
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