Wolf Man

In the summer of the year of 2001 i was having a Universal Monster movie marathon Saturday with my high school friends Patrick and André in my apartment. Since none of us had seen a lot of the old monster movies released by Universal Pictures i decided to rent some of them at one of our local DVD rental stores. I picked out 3 very well known horror classics and that was The Mummy ( 1932 ), Phantom Of The Opera ( 1943 ) and finally the film The Wolf Man ( 1941 ). All of the DVD cases looked cool and we watched all 3 films over one night. To this occasion i actually baked us an apple pie because i knew these guys would drink lots of coffee ( we always did at movie nights in my apartment ) and they definetely enjoyed the pie. Looking back at this Saturday night i remember we all enjoyed each film for different reasons. I believe Patrick enjoyed The Mummy most of the films because he loved the more modern The Mummy movies with Brendan Fraser, which was why he was curious to see the original The Mummy film. One of the films i especially found fascinating of these three titles was The Wolf Man, a film i have heard about many years in my youth but didn´t really watch it until then. The Wolf Man tells the story of Larry Talbort ( played by legendary actor Lou Chaney Jr. ) who returns to the ancestral home in Lianwalley, Wales, to bury his recently deceased brother and reconcile with his estranged father, Sir John Talbot ( played by legendary actor Claude Rains ). Larry falls in lover with a local girl named Gewn Conliffe ( Evelyn Ankers ) who runs an antique shop. It is in this sop that Larry buys a walking stick decorated with a silver wolf´s head. What he doesn´t know is that this walking stick is carrying a curse. The Wolf Man is without a doubt a true werewolf classic that may look a bit silly to some people today ( considering how werewolf practical make up effects have improved since then ) but i think considering the time period they did a great job making the best they could with the budget. In 2010 director Joe Johnston delivered a a remake simply known as The Wolfman, This film definetely had a different take on this classic story with great acting performances especially from Anthony Hopkins and actress Emily Blunt. I actually prefer the 2010 film over the original film for personal reasons, while i still enjoy the original film. So here we are in 2025 and have another film adaptation of The Wolf Man and this time from director Leigh Whannell ( who most of you remember from the original Saw film ). I simply had to see this film to see if i would be surprised since i always try to watch new werewolf films. Is this the best Wolf Man adaptation we have so far or does it not succeed to reach the same level of quality as the previous films?

Blake Lovell ( Christopher Abbot ) lives in San Fransisco with his daughter Ginger Lovell ( Matilda Firth ) and workaholic wife Charlotte Lovell ( Julia Garner ). Blake is having problems controlling his temper, which causes conflicts in the marriage. One day, he recieves a death certificate for his father Grady Lavell ( Sam Jaeger ), who went missing, and the keys to his childhood home is sent to him inside the death certificate. Blake have not seen his father for many years so he ha no close connection to him. However, he decides to travel back to his childhood home and take Ginger and Charlotte with him there, so try and spend time together as a family and rebuild his marriage. Seeking directions, they encouter a local, Derek Kiel ( Benedict Hardie ), who leads them to the house as the sun sets. Before they arrive, a creature drives them off the road, scratches Blake´s arm and kills Derek. They manage to escape into Blake´s childhood home as the beast seemss to be waiting outside. But the wound Blake had seems to change him, he´s not the same man he used to be.

Since i am a very big fan of director Leigh Whannells film Upgrade from 2018 i was really excited seeing his take on this classic movie monster. I will start by saying this, Leigh is a really talented director using a lot of really effective camera angles, especially in certain scenes that captures the fear of knowing there is a dangerous beast out there. I love the scenes where you only see glimpses of the beast and don´t reveal the whole look, it keeps the mystery alive and the fascination for the beast as well. I think this is a smart move since you don´t want to know too many details from an early start and just keep the creepy horror elements build up tensions along the way. I love the fact that this film tries to tell the story from two different angles, you have the fear from what is waiting on the outside but then you have the fear of the main character Blake who is turning into a beast himself. This gives the film a completely different level of tension that i didn´t expect. When it comes to the relationship between the father Blake and his daughter Ginger i have to say both actors Christopher Abbot and Matilda Firth did a great job capturing that magic between a father and a daughter. Actress Julia Garner proves once more her actings skills matches with her character. I have to mention the practical make up effects because i am a huge fan of films who goes old school and show us flesh wounds that´s not CGI. This is definetely important when it comes to a film where you have two werewolves showing since the best films in this genre used practical make up effects as well. The werewolf design is definetely a throwback to the original film with some differences. I appreciate that this film is mostly focused on one location which is the old house, it makes the atmosphere surrounding this old forest match very well with the story.I honestly don´t understand the negative reviews of Wolf Man because i actually enjoyed this film. Director Leigh Whannell is a talented horror director and he knows how to make a horror film look good, choose the right kind of characters and bring life into this genre that needed a good werewolf film. I definetely recommend Wolf Man for true horror fans and i will be picking up a physical copy to my werewolf collection ( yes i do have a love for this specific genre ).

Rating: DDD