“Wolf Man” is terrifying, good horror fun. The plot is simple. Blake (Christopher Abbott) is an unemployed writer and stay-at-home father, who is adored by his young daughter, Ginger (Mathilda Firth). When he finds out that his own dad — who has been missing for years — has finally been officially declared dead, he decides to go home and pack up his things. He convinces his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) — who he is having marital issues with due to her workaholic tendencies — to accompany him. When their van crashes and Blake is bitten by an unknown entity, horror and tragedy ensues.
While some of my fellow critics found this film too slow, I found it terrifying and may never visit the woods again! Unlike many horror movies where the characters do stupid things that no one would ever do, every move made by Blake and Charlotte was feasibly something that you would do in a similar situation. This is what compounded the horror, Director Leigh Whannell, who rebooted the “Invisible Man” in 2020, is a master in slow building terror. At times, “Wolf Man” is so scary that I got literal tingles in my body and found myself holding my breath. And the physical transformation of Blake into a wolfman was the best since “An American Werewolf in London”.
I did have two complaints about this movie. First, there is the massive, gaping plot hole at the center of it. If Blake overheard his dad talking about the wolf man as a child, why would he not know what bit him? That made no sense at all. And secondly, it ends too quickly. I would’ve liked to have seen a bit more of wolf man Blake hunting Charlotte and Ginger after his transformation. And in homage to the original werewolf movies, I also would’ve had the werewolves return to their human form when they died. While it is not on par with Whannell’s fantastic “The Invisible Man“, I thoroughly enjoyed his reboot of the werewolf/wolf man saga.
