Universal Pictures is the proud owner of legendary IP’s in the Universal Monsters cinematic universe, populated by monstrous horror film icons such as Count Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Invisible Man, et al. So, when big Hollywood competitors Disney and Warner came danger close to owning the box office in its entirety with their respective MCU and DC universes, it didn’t take long for the Universal execs to put one and one together, conceive their own Dark Universe with the IP’s they already had in their board room desk drawers, and get in on the revenue action.
Go big or go home, is what their strategy must have boiled down to, and Universal’s first big Tom Cruise-starring effort The Mummy (2017) took nearly $200 million to get made, which amount was more than doubled to also get it promoted. But it flopped badly and ended up losing Universal nearly € 100 million. Lacking the unfathomable pocket-depth of their humongous Hollywood housemates, they abandoned the ideas for a Dark Universe altogether to stay afloat. That is, until modest money master Jason Blum picked up the script for Invisible Man (2020) and managed to get it made for a mere $7 million; a low-effort, low-cost venture that unexpectedly managed to recoup the Mummy-deficits for them.
Writer and director for Invisible Man was Aussie filmmaker Leigh Whannell, who found notoriety as the writer for films that put James Wan on the mainstream radar. With writing credits for films and franchises such as Saw, Insidious and Dead Silence under his belt, Whannell became something of a bankable brand name all by himself as well. For Jason Blum, the math here was simple. The IP’s were just sitting there, waiting to be reworked, and armed with the clout from Invisible Man’s financial success, he managed to negotiate $25 million to get Wolf Man made with Whannell again onboard for writing and directing.
While it’s tempting to be cynical about Jason Blum’s productions, and the assembly line reproach is not entirely without merit, it would be unfair to deride all his films as shallow cinematic consumerism beforehand. To his credit and in his defense, I would argue that he’s also been involved with widely acclaimed films like Get Out (2017), Oculus (2013) and Paranormal Activity (a home-run back in 2007, not just commercially but also critically). He knows what he’s doing and how to get films made while staying within budget, and he’s predominantly making originals to boot. The problems with his films though, when they arise, are in the writing, the quality of which often lives anywhere between the mediocre and the abysmal. Like he just rolls with what he has (assuming he didn’t let AI write it) without much in the way of thorough revisions, and taking a page from J.J. Abrams’ playbook by covering the holes with onscreen value and gloss. With this in mind, I dialed my expectations down to “let’s see” and pressed play on Wolf Man.
The film opens with a young Blake Lovell, who’s out on a hunting trip with his father when they encounter a menacing creature in the shadowy forest. Back home, he overhears his father discussing protection against the creature with a friend over his CB radio. Fast forward to 30 years later and Blake (Christopher Abbott, It Comes at Night, Possessor), now a writer and married with Charlotte (Julia Garner, The Last Exorcism Part II, Apartment 7A), receives a death certificate for his father and the keys to his farmhouse as inheritance. With his marriage in murky waters due to his anger control issues, they decide to take a breather vacation in the farmhouse, bringing along their young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth, Starve Acre, Subservience).
On their way to and not too far away anymore from the farmhouse and already at night, Blake sees an old friend from childhood on the lookout who weirdly insists on guiding them to their destination, but their truck crashes and careens when Blake tries to avoid a suddenly appearing creature on the road. A werewolf attacks the dangling truck, scratching Blake on his arm and dragging off his friend as he, with Charlotte and Ginger, make a run for the farmhouse to barricade themselves against the creature. But all is not well with Blake, as the wound on his arm starts to fester uncontrollably throughout the night, causing him to change and devolve into something not-Blake, while a desperate Charlotte tries to deal with the lycanthropic threats and ordeals from outside and, possibly, inside.
Wolf Man doesn’t operate as a remake of George Waggner’s famous Lon Chaney jr. starring classic The Wolf Man (1941). Whannell’s rendition does away with all the rich supernatural folklore that the original was imbued with, and transposes his story into something that in its bare essence would be a straight family drama. Blake doesn’t have his fortunes told by gypsies, pentagrams appearing in his hand palms, ominous premonitions come true, or a silver wolf’s head on his bane. He has a troubled marriage, the culpability for which alluded to be his, and he seeks redemption, or at the very least reprieve, to settle his personal demons, alluded, again, to stem from childhood trauma. Wolf Man is basically a stripped-down, straightforward story about a guy with his family who’s facing a monster from his childhood and who gets infected by it.
The film makes it obvious that Blake is a troubled man, but Whannell doesn’t give his main character’s troubles the depth of rooting needed to really sympathize with him. Abbott admirably does what he can on the dramatic side of his acting delivery, but we just don’t get to know Blake enough to really care as we don’t get much past just watching him devolve from a sulky guy to a tormented guy. The same can be said about Garner, only sans the dramatic arch. She knows how to portray a caring wife and that’s basically it, that’s all we get from her on a dramatic level. Things do get more involving on the performance side of the acting scale though, as Blake’s transformation robs him of his physical faculties, and Garner’s Charlotte has to find her resolve to protect her daughter, herself and, if still possible, her husband, against the monstrous mayhem unfolding around them.
This begs the question of what exactly Whannell wanted to explore and tell us with Wolf Man. A monster allegory about domestic violence and childhood trauma? A straight-up action romp with monster mayhem as main course with a side dish of drama? A character study exploring personal demons and the deconstruction and decomposition they bring on someone? As you may have guessed, it’s a bit of all of the above which makes it, tightly written as it otherwise may be (Whannell is too skilled a writer to leave his plot-lines dangling), a bit unfocused and as a result, forgettable film. Released about 4 months ago at the time of writing this review, I’d wager most of you reading this and who watched it earlier barely remember it at all, or at the very least realize it’s actually not that long ago since they’ve seen it.
Compounding this is its struggle to drum up some thrills. Of course there’s the monster besieging our protagonists in the confinement of the farmhouse and the frantics coming with that, along with the ticking time-bomb of another monster growing right besides them which, tropey as it may be, succeeds in delivering some suspense as nowhere’s safe for our plagued little family. And it has to be said, the monster is visually effective; not some digital wet fantasy creature but the real deal with well-crafted prosthetics, aided by Whannell’s wise choice to sparingly put it on display. But save for anyone who grew up under a rock, we all know what werewolves will do so there’s no mystery there in and by itself. This makes Whannell’s decision to entirely strip its lore and legend a questionable one. Here, lycanthropy works much like a zombie infection: same process just a different look on the outcome. This, combined with little relatability of its main characters, makes that the film has very little to really work with in order to get its audience invested; something supernatural backstories might have been helpful with.
Of course Whannell, with his writing chops, knew exactly what he was doing. It’s like he was instructed upon hiring to keep things fast, straight and simple. That’s a hallmark of many Blumhouse films, and that’s what Wolf Man ends up being. Still, he managed to find something to make his film stand out: he shows us POV-footage of what the world looks and sounds like when one changes into a werewolf. And silly is that may look on paper, Whannell actually found a way to make it look and sound interesting and, dare I say, immersive. To me, that’s easily the highlight of Wolf Man’s viewing experience and a hint of what could have been without the constraints from the producer’s boardroom.
This must have cost a small fortune though, because nearly all of the film’s generous 103-minutes action time including credits takes place in one singular location – in New Zealand guised as Oregon for whatever reason; guess all the locations around Vancouver were taken or BC’s tax incentives didn’t come around fast or appealing enough, who knows – and populated by a three-head cast, or 4 if you include the monster. That doesn’t strike me as expensive film-making, not even in mid-budget terms like what Wolf Man was working with – $25 million is a considerable chunk of change for a film like this after all. Be that as it may, the movie looks and sounds really good. Say what you will about Blumhouse but they always make sure sound and visuals of their productions are in order, and Wolf Man is no exception.
In conclusion, Wolf Man is an acceptable, undemanding way to pass some time on a dark rainy evening. Still firmly seated in Blumhouse’s film league in terms of quality, I suppose it’s one of the better ones there, surpassing the bulk of the direct-to-streaming flicks catered towards the Amazon and Netflix crowd – if just barely. As long as you keep in mind that this film, embellished as it may be, still harbors the same DNA, you’ll be entertained but ultimately left unimpressed.