Wolf Man (15)
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Matilda Firth, Julia Garner, Sam JaegerGenre: Horror
Author(s): Leigh Whannell, Corbett Tuck
Director: Leigh Whannell
Release Date: 17/01/2025
Running Time: 103mins
Country: US
Year: 2025
Blake inherits his childhood home in rural Oregon after his father vanishes without trace and is presumed dead. He persuades his wife Charlotte to travel from San Francisco to visit the property with their young daughter Ginger. The family arrives at night and an unseen animal attacks the clan, forcing Blake, Charlotte and Ginger to barricade themselves inside the house. The beast circles the residence and inside, Blake begins to behave oddly.
LondonNet Film Review
Wolf Man (15) Film Review from LondonNet
Parents on two and four legs are hard-wired to protect their young. Fiercely, ferociously, selflessly, to the death. Leigh Whannell, director of The Invisible Man, explores the terrifying lengths one father will go to protect his young daughter from toxic masculinity and generational cycles of trauma in a contemporary reimagining of werewolf folklore, co-written by the filmmaker and Corbett Tuck. Wolf Man melds the full moon metamorphosis of An American Werewolf In London with the squelchy body horror of The Fly, slowly encasing lead actor Christopher Abbott in prosthetics and practical creature effects to portray an abomination of nature who retains flecks of his humanity beneath a mangy pelt. Co-star Julia Garner’s work-oriented mother feels less well defined…
In a neat stylistic move, cinematographer Stefan Duscio shoots key sequences through the eyes of the lycanthropic lead character, who possesses night vision and can see his prey in the dark as petrified phantoms with eerie, glowing eyes. Gliding back and forth between this haunting, otherworldly perspective and the conventional point of view of human prey is strikingly effective and mercilessly cranks up tension under a cloak of darkness.
San Francisco-based writer Blake (Abbott) receives a declaration of presumed death for his missing huntsman father (Sam Jaeger) along with a set of keys to his childhood home nestled deep in the woods of Oregon. His marriage to journalist wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) is under intense strain and Blake tentatively suggests some quality time in the wilderness with their young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) might help the couple focus on each other without unhelpful distractions. The fractured family travels north to Oregon in a moving van and approaches the vacant house at night, following directions from a kind neighbour (Benedict Hardie).
A strange bipedal creature, believed to be a missing hiker from 1995 who has gone feral with an acute case of hills fever, diverts the van off the road and subsequently attacks Blake, Charlotte and Ginger. The terrified trio sprint to safety and barricade themselves inside the vacant home as the beast circles the residence. Blake promises Ginger they will leave as soon as daylight comes but the injured father’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and Charlotte is compelled to make split-second decisions to protect herself and her daughter.
Wolf Man is a solidly entertaining but thoroughly predictable survival thriller. One suspenseful sequence is heavily indebted to Jurassic Park, trading a voracious velociraptor for a hirsute but equally hangry adversary. As depicted on screen, it’s hard to see what drew Blake and Charlotte to each other or why we should root for them to save their relationship. Nevertheless, heavy-handed screenwriting plucks a heartstring to engineer a pleasantly emotional resolution.
– Kim Hu
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