‘Wolf Man’ review: Dir. Leigh Whannell (2025)

Leigh Whannell might be better known as being the star and scribe of James Wan’s Saw, but in recent years he has moved into directing. This new venture has proved Whannell to be an exciting new voice in the genre sphere with his sophomore film, Upgrade, a wicked slice of science-fiction action cinema. Then came Whannell’s modern interpretation of The Invisible Man, which delighted audiences everywhere. For his fourth film as director, Whannell is staying in the Universal monsters sandbox as he adapts the iconic Wolf Man. 

Starring Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, and young newcomer Matilda Firth, Whannell’s reworking of Wolf Man brings the chilling werewolf story to a fresh generation. As with The Invisible Man before it, there is little on paper to connect Wolf Man to its original iterations outside of the title. This approach worked beautifully for The Invisible Man, and with Wolf Man Whannell has done it again. Rather than chain himself to having to perform particular homages and hit certain story beats, Whannell and his co-writer, Corbett Tuck, delve into the themes, expanding them into something with more bite. 

Wolf Man begins with foreboding text that teases strange disappearances, a mysterious virus known as ‘Hills Fever’, and weird creatures that roam a patch of land deep within the Oregon wilderness. This short flurry of text, coupled with shots of a remote farmhouse shrouded in misty morning dew, effortlessly set the tone for the horror to come. Within this house resides young boy Blake (Zac Chandler) and his militant father, Grady (Sam Jaeger). The pair spend their days hunting, and Wolf Man starts by joining the two on a rather eventful hunt. 

This opening sequence is saturated in dread and tension as Whannell expertly induces sweaty palms and increased heart-rates in his audience. The scene is a masterful example of less is more, Whannell allowing the sound design to paint a nightmarish picture filled in by the imagination of the viewer. At the same time as conjuring some early scares and moments of unease, this sequence also tells the audience everything they need to know about Blake and his father. A past tragedy has changed Blake’s father and has made him overbearing and tough on his son. His intentions to keep his son safe are commendable, but his zealot-like focus on achieving his goal leaves his son fearful of him. 

After Wolf Man’s dramatic opening, the story continues with Blake as an adult. Now a father himself, Blake’s parenting skill is the antithesis to his own upbringing. After receiving confirmation of his father’s death, and needing to resolve his childhood trauma, Blake takes his daughter, Ginger, and wife, Charlotte, back to his former home. However, their arrival is met with disaster as the family are hunted by a maniacal creature lurking in the woodland. Can the trio last the night? 

Whereas other Wolf Man stories take place over several days, weeks, or months, once Blake and his family get on the road, events occur over just one day. This truncating of events serves to ramp up the horror, whilst handily sidestepping many of the werewolf tropes. Wolf Man fast becomes a neverending nightmare for Blake, Charlotte, and Ginger for which the cast convey the terror well. Chirstopher Abbott is quickly earning a reputation for playing characters that have a bad time, and with Wolf Man he has perhaps found someone going through the very worst time. Injured by the beast outside, Blake begins to change and Whannell’s interpretation of the transition from man to creature is ghastly and drawn out. Rather than a fast change, Blake’s affliction is gradual, allowing plenty of moments of horror, instead of the typical build-up to one epic metamorphosis.  

Whilst the traditional monstrous elements in Wolf Man are strong, it is those found within the story that are strongest. Leigh Whannell used The Invisible Man to tell a story of domestic abuse, here he explores themes of childhood trauma and menacing parents. Blake’s father is not strictly a bad man, but rather one unable to express his love for his child in a healthy way. This in turn has left deep scars on Blake’s psyche and his wrestling with his newfound affliction is a perfect metaphor for his inner turmoil and fear of becoming a ‘monster’ like his father. 

The other element that helps sell the emotion within Wolf Man is the family dynamic between Charlotte, Blake, and Ginger. What on the surface may look picture perfect, has plenty of hidden cracks, and as the film progresses these issues have to be confronted. Julia Garner’s Charlotte is especially complex as she struggles to juggle with her own perceived failings brought on by her guilt of being a working mother. 

That there is so much to mine and explore within Wolf Man makes it more than just a standard popcorn horror, but that isn’t to say that Whannell has forgotten this aspect. Wolf Man is littered with devilishly crafted chilling sequences, with the sound design a worthy hero of the piece. Whannell has also added some great visual flourishes that place the audience within Blake’s new form. In addition to the horror, there are several great moments of action. Whannell already proved his talent in this arena with Upgrade, but here the inclusion of homages to, of all of things, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, really highlight that the director should be given access to a bigger action property.

In 2017, Alex Kurtzman’s The Mummy, which starred Tom Cruise, was positioned as being the beginning of a new ‘Dark Universe’ of Universal movies.The choice to make the movie a generic popcorn action film killed interest and the film was a spectacular flop, and in turn, also killed the cinematic universe itself. This has left the door open for others to reignite those classic monsters, and with the double of The Invisible Man, and Wolf Man, there’s a very strong argument to just let Leigh Whannell have a go at each monster lurking in the Universal vault. 

Wolf Man is released in cinemas across the UK on 17th January 2025.