Werewolf movies are notoriously hard to get right, in my humble opinion. Are the titular creatures just mindless beasts like in An American Werewolf in London? Perhaps a hippie death cult like in The Howling? Or are they secretly a good guy like in Werewolf by Night? One aspect in werewolf lore that almost always transfers is the idea that lycanthropy is a curse. This comes to the fore in Blumhouse’s Wolf Man, the second Leigh Whannell-helmed reimagining of the Universal Monsters. The first was 2020’s The Invisible Man, don’t you know. In the first full trailer, a beast claws a father (Christopher Abbott) and his wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth) have to contend with his ever-worsening health. It’s presented like an illness or plague. But still terrifying.
After the unbelievably epic collapse of the barely constructed Dark Universe and its sole outing, The Mummy in 2017, Universal stepped back from it plan for big-budget retellings of its classic monsters. Enter Blumhouse which employed its brand of higher concept, lower budget horror to The Invisible Man. Under Leigh Whannell, the property took on themes of spousal abuse and gaslighting with a sci-fi edge. It proved incredibly popular during the COVID times.
Wolf Man will be a different beast, excuse the pun. Werewolves, as I said, are hard to pull off effectively and it seems like Whannell is trying to use the typical setup to tell a similar, family dynamic in peril tale. We don’t even know if this movie will depict an according-to-Hoyle werewolf. Either way, I’m mightily intrigued by this, especially with actors of Garner and Abbott’s caliber involved.
What gives me a bit of pause is its release date. January 17, 2024. As a comparison, Blumhouse’s January release for 2024 was Night Swim, still one of the year’s worst. I suppose we shall see!
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
Originally published October 18, 2024.
