Does Whannell's "WOLF MAN" (2025) Howl At The Moon Or Just Scratch Fleas? (REVIEW)

Encouraged by the success of 2020’s “The Invisible Man,” Universal Studios is hoping Leigh Whannell can bring another beloved Universal Monsters franchise the same critical and financial results with this past weekend’s release of “Wolf Man,” Whenell has reimagined this tragic tale for a modern age, but the soul of the original remains intact, “Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” 

Initially announced in 2014 as part of Universal’s “Dark Universe” franchise, the project was shelved after the disastrous reception to Tom Cruise’s “The Mummy.” That launch failure eventually convinced the studio to scrap the shared universe concept and focus on stand-alone films with major talent attached, both in front of and behind the camera—the success of “The Invisible Man” proving that the stand-alone concept was a winning formula. With a clear strategy for their House of Horrors, the next step was finding a creative team to bring these properties to life.

After meeting with numerous actors and directors, including Ryan Gosling, who was initially announced for the role, Universal hired Whannell in 2020 to direct and write the treatment with his wife, Corbett Tuck. For inspiration, they focused on the feelings of immense isolation and family trauma experienced by so many as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. They showed the ravages of lycanthropy as more of an infectious disease rather than a supernatural curse. Scheduling conflicts would see Whennell drop out in 2021 and Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine) enter negotiations to write and direct with Gosling attached yet again. By 2023, that duo would drop out due to those notorious scheduling conflicts, and Whannell would return with Christopher Abbott in the lead role, along with Julia Garner as his wife, Charlotte. Principle photography began in March of 2024, with Queenstown, New Zealand, standing in for Oregan. 

After ten years of trying to get “Wolf Man” to the screen, how successful is this 2025 rendition of our favorite lupus hominarius? That’s not easy to answer, but we’ll certainly try. This film is confounding because it does something incredibly well, namely taking existing I.P. and putting a fresh if not altogether bold, spin on a wolf pelt that was frankly pretty mottled and dusty at this point. The resounding complaint heard around the world when it comes to studios and their death grip on an existing franchise is that each foray into remake, relaunch, or reinterpretation is met with the accurate criticism of: this is the same dreck you gave us (insert number) years ago. It’s the wash, rinse, repeat cycle we’ve all become numb to, the soul-crushing lack of originality or creativity and the abject cynicism of a calculated cash-grab. This film must be lauded for finding a new direction, even if that means swaying wildly away from canon, which will trigger and upset a multitude of “this is not the Wolfman of my (youth, comics, movies, sex dream)” fanboys. That’s okay by us. We’ll take this new direction even if it doesn’t fully land. There are dozens of reviews out now, many of them calling out that this is a flawed, disjointed film that comes close but ultimately doesn’t work. We agree with this assessment completely, but very few give equal time and space to Whannell's choices, which, like them or not, were unexpected and unique. Let’s break it down.

Synopsis:

Blake Lovell receives a letter declaring his missing Father has been declared dead. Convincing his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) that summering at the family farm will benefit their daughter (Mathilda ) and their strained marriage, they head west to Oregon. While trying to locate the house, they crash their moving truck, and an unseen assailant attacks them, scratching Blake in the process. Throughout the night, he becomes less human and evolves into something savage and feral.

WHAT WORKS: (Light Spoilers)

Whannell’s decision to walk away from certain aspects of werewolf lore - the full moon triggering the transformation, reverting to human form at sunrise, anything at all to do with silver - for new avenues of tension and trauma to explore - the gradual inability to understand language, the body shutting down while simultaneously enhancing, essentially tearing the person apart - are things we’ve never seen in a werewolf movie previously. Whether they land for an audience or not, they’re fresh takes, and we appreciate Whennell taking a chance to create a new mythology, one rooted closer to a disease state rather than folklore. It’s an interesting concept, and Abbott does a fantastic job conveying the pain associated with evolving into something horrifically new. 

The grandeur and beauty of the New Zealand countryside add to the sense of isolation the family feels so far from the help of civilization. The helplessness of their situation feels immediate and real. The use of light and shadow throughout the film adds suspense and tension but also demonstrates the emerging abilities Abbott is experiencing, which are so well done that we expect them to be cherry-picked for future werewolf movies. 

The decision to make this essentially a single-location chamber piece rather than a march toward the full moon is the most innovative of all the changes made. Yes, “Dog Soldiers” did a similar thing, but this movie looks to stay within the confines of those walls while “Dog Soldiers” is bursting at the seems to escape it. Whannell has taken the key element people obsess over in a werewolf movie, the transformation, and crafted an entire film around it. The body horror will undoubtedly draw comparisons to David Cronenberg’s 1986 masterpiece “The Fly,” but “Wolf Man” isn’t ripping anything off here. The practical effects, solely practical to our appreciation, are unique to the character and exceptionally well done. 

WHAT DOESN’T WORK:

The werewolf design is just okay. It’s more along the lines of 2021’s “The Cursed” and 2013’s “WER” than any full transformation werewolf movie over the last 80 years. They work, but just barely. The film starts with an establishing scene of Blake and Charlotte agreeing that their marriage is in trouble, but there’s no explanation for why they’re at this crossroads. The leads have almost no chemistry whatsoever, and Julia Garner, almost always the best thing she’s in, is miscast in this film. The escalating insanity of her situation, the transformation of her husband into something…else, and the immediate switch from parental bystander to primary protector are never fully explored. The reaction to each new horror is often conveyed with the same wide-eyed terror. Their daughter, Ginger, played by Mathilda Firth, is more of a prop and less of a character. When a sleeping child is moved to a new location for the third time, you must take another pass at the script. 

There’s an extended cold open that does a great job of ratcheting up the terror of danger in the woods while also effectively illustrating the horror of toxic masculinity and the abysmal parenting choices that stem from it that go nowhere. These themes are explored peripherally in the film but never effectively; none of them lands meaningfully. That’s a shame because an exciting concept there deserves to be explored deeper. 

BOTTOM LINE:

This film should be seen on the big screen, bottom line. It’s flawed, for sure, but the pros outweigh the cons. It’s visually engaging with a tight 100-minute run time. The practical effects, while minimal, are still effective enough to earn our respect. Abbott does a great job portraying the most tragic of all Universal Monsters (okay, maybe it’s a three-way tie with Frankenstein and the Gill Man). We hate to keep beating this dead horse, but a new entry into an established franchise I.P. that delivers a wholly unexpected, fresh take on a subgenre deserves a look. We’re not promising you’ll like it, but we can confidently say you’ve never seen it.

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