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Prime Video is ready with an entertainment-packed August this year. The upcoming month will see the release of the much-anticipated final season of Upload and the prequel series of The Terminal List. Just like every month, Prime Video is ready to overload you with great content. So, we’re here to tell you about the best 12 new movies and TV shows coming to Prime Video in August 2025.

30 Rock Seasons 1-7 (August 1) Credit – NBC

30 Rock is a surrealist sitcom series created by Tina Fey. The NBC series is set in New York City, and it follows Liz Lemon, the head writer of a Saturday Night Live-like TV series, as she deals with her eccentric staff and cast and arrogant Network bosses. 30 Rock stars Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander,...

Stars: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Sam Jaeger, Matilda Firth, Benedict Hardie, Ben Prendergast, Zac Chandler | Written by Leigh Whannell, Corbett Tuck | Directed by Leigh Whannell

Writer-director Leigh Whannell follows 2020’s horror hit The Invisible Man with another revamp of a classic Universal monster movie. Unfortunately, it’s not quite a howling success – it delivers its fair share of tension and gore moments, but things get a bit hairier when it comes to landing on a suitable allegory and the script ultimately disappoints.

Wolf Man opens with a prologue, in which pre-teen Blake (Zac Chandler) has a scary encounter with an unseen creature in the woods, while out hunting with his stern, militaristic father Grady (Sam Jaeger). Thirty years later, a now grown-up Blake (Christopher Abbott) inherits a remote woodland cabin after his father is finally declared dead, having disappeared without a trace, many years earlier.

A struggling writer, Blake is...

This month, Peacock has already dropped several horror titles on its platform, including The Exorcist, Exorcist: The Beginning, Last Night in Soho, The Vatican Tapes and Pulse. Now, the streamer is set to add yet another chilling addition to its platform. A horror film that hit theaters earlier this year! It's the Blumhouse werewolf horror movie Wolf Man. It will reportedly make its way to Peacock on Friday, April 18, 2025.

Wolf Man was actually Blumhouse's first horror flick of the year. Since then, we've seen one other horror movie from the company be released in 2025, which was The Woman in the Yard. The werewolf horror comes from Leigh Whannell, who not only directed the film but also co-wrote the script with his wife Corbett Tuck. Whannell is best known for co-creating the Saw franchise with his friend James Wan. Some of his previous works that you might've watched are the horror movies Saw,...

The new take on The Wolf Man has scored a streaming date on Peacock. The horror story directed by Leigh Whannellwill be making its way to the streaming platform on April 18. Three months after the Blumhouse production hit the big screen, audiences will be able to experience the frights in the comfort of their homes. Wolf Man was yet another chapter in the history of Universal bringing their classic horror icons back for new stories meant to make a young generation of viewers fall in love with the genre. And it all begins with a terrible curse that can be transmitted from one host to another.

Wolf Man follows Blake (Christopher Abbott) and Charlotte Lovell (Julia Garner). The couple is attempting to raise their daughter in peace, when they learn about a strange creature lurking in the woods. Blake and Charlotte's marriage was headed towards disaster by the time the movie begins.

Director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man shakes up the werewolf mythos with a new take on the Universal Classic Monster, and it’s heading to Peacock this month.

From Blumhouse and Universal Pictures, Wolf Man begins streaming exclusively on Peacock beginning April 18.

Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) stars as Blake, a husband and father who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes. With his marriage to wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth). But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter.

Of course, there’s also the matter of Blake, who begins a harrowing transformation. Whannell’s reimagining of...

Peacock announced on Friday that Wolf Man, its modern take on the classic monster story starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, will begin streaming exclusively on the service on April 18.

There, the film joins The Invisible Man — from Wolf Man helmer Leigh Whannell — as well as the recent Halloween films and such other popular horror titles as The Black Phone and Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Hailing from Blumhouse and Universal Pictures, Wolf Man follows Blake (Abbott), who while seeking a fresh start, moves his wife Charlotte (Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) to his childhood home in rural Oregon. Upon arrival, they encounter a brutal animal attack, forcing the family to barricade themselves inside the house as an unseen creature prowls the perimeter. As the night wears on, Blake’s injuries worsen, and his bizarre behavior turns monstrous. To protect her daughter, Charlotte must decide whether to confront the danger...

In the build-up to Wolf Man's release, the design of the titular monster was seemingly unveiled when photos of a guy in a mask at Universal's theme park attraction found their way online.

Though this did turn out to be the basis for the werewolf that attacks our protagonists in Leigh Whannell's movie, the overall look came across a lot better on screen, and Blake (Christopher Abbott) ultimately transforms into a different beast altogether.

Even so, the "Hills Fever" wolfman's final design still proved to be highly divisive, and a lot of fans simply couldn't get on board with a near-hairless creature that looked far more man than wolf.

We've already seen some alternate creature designs from concept artist Constantine Sekeris, who has now taken to Instagram to share another early sketch. This take on the monster actually looks a little like the Wolfman from Monster Squad!

After an unfortunate lackluster performance at the box office, Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man has been given a digital release date. You can expect the horror film to be available for rent or purchase on digital retailers on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. As of right now, you can pre-order the film on digital platforms such as AppleTV or Fandango at Home for $24.99 before taxes.

On the actual day of its digital release, the movie will likely be priced between $19.99 and $29.99 for purchase, while rental may range from $14.99 to $24.99. This is an estimate of the usual prices for both purchasing and renting a new movie on its digital release day. Then, on March 18, the horror film will reportedly have a physical media release, where it will be available to buy on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray, and DVD.

Here are the bonus features that will be included on the digital version, 4K, Blu-ray and DVD...

The reboot of the classic Universal Monsters property The Wolf Man from Blumhouse Productions and The Invisible Man (2020) director Leigh Whannell reached theatres last month – and JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray wasn’t very impressed with it, giving it a 6/10 review that you can read Here and describing it as “well-acted, but not very scary.” Clearly, he wasn’t the only one who was unimpressed. While The Invisible Man made over $139 million at the global box office, Wolf Man has been crawling toward the $30 million mark. Now, it has been revealed that Wolf Man is set to receive a digital release tomorrow, February 4th, with a physical media release to follow on March 18th.

The leads of this version of Wolf Man are Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, both of whom were in the 2011 film Martha Marcy May Marlene. Abbott is taking on the role of a man whose family...

Wolf Man transforms on Digital tomorrow, February 4, before clawing its way onto Steelbook 4K Uhd, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 18 via Universal.

The fresh take on the classic monster is directed by Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man) from a script he co-wrote with wife Corbett Tuck.

Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Sam Jaeger, and Matilda Firth star in the Blumhouse production.

Special Features:

Audio Commentary by Director/Co-Writer Leigh Whannel Unleashing a New Monster – Explore Leigh Whannell’s dark and gritty take on one of horror’s most iconic monsters. Learn what inspired the visionary director to create this tragic tale of family, loss, and a night of absolute terror. Designing Wolf Man – Director Leigh Whannell and prosthetic designer Arjen Tuiten, set out to create a Wolf Man unlike any seen before. Take a closer look at the conceptual designs, sculptures and prosthetic make-up that aided in the...

One of the biggest talking points among horror fans in the build-up to Wolf Man's release was the design of the titular monster, which was seemingly unveiled when photos of a guy in a mask at Universal's theme park attraction found their way online.

The werewolf that attacks our protagonists in Leigh Whannell's movie actually ended up looking a lot better, and Blake (Christopher Abbott) ultimately transforms into a different beast altogether.

Even so, the "Hills Fever" wolfman's final design still proved to be highly divisive, and a lot of fans simply couldn't get on board with a near-hairless creature that looked far more man than wolf.

Below, you'll find a number of alternate creature designs from concept artist Constantine Sekeris, and it seems there may have been early plans in place to have Blake change into a slightly more lupine-looking werewolf.

"Wanted to share some very...

Director Leigh Whannell gave the classic Universal Monsters a shot of modern life in 2020 with his thrilling new take on "The Invisible Man." In the aftermath of that success, Universal Pictures and Blumhouse set about reinventing another monster in the form of the Wolfman. Originally, Oscar-nominee Ryan Gosling ("Barbie") was set to star in "Wolf Man" that had director Cory Finley ("Bad Education") flirting with the director's chair before Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine") came on board. Things changed a lot along the way, with Whannell ultimately settling into the director's chair. But why did Gosling drop out?

Gosling is still credited on "Wolf Man" as a producer, for what it's worth. Yet, he doesn't appear on screen. Instead, Christopher Abbott stars as Blake, the ill-fated man who becomes a werewolf. In a recent interview with CinemaBlend timed to the film's release, Whannell explained that the film didn't change a lot once Abbott took over.

The original 1941 movie The Wolf Man, starring Lon Chaney Jr. set the template for Hollywoods depiction of the werewolf for many years afterwards. It’s huge influence came be seen in the great tales of the genre from An American Werewolf in London to The Howling, Ginger Snaps and even modern classics like Werewolves Within.

After the enjoyable but unremarkable 2010 remake and the abortive attempts to bring the character back as part of their doomed Dark Universe, (find out more in my Invisible Man review!) it seemed Universal had lost their bite when it came to this particular shaggy wolf story.

Enter Leigh Whannell, who after dragging The Invisible Man into the modern era, set his sights on the Wolf Man. In his first Universal monster remake he managed to do something no-one else could – create a masterpiece that made the see-through mad scientist scary again. Because of this, it...

Horror fans were very excited when it was announced that Leigh Whannell had stepped in to replace the departing Derek Cianfrance as director on Universal/Blumhouse's Wolf Man reboot, since the filmmaker had previously delivered his own take on another classic Universal Monster which proved to be a big critical and commercial hit.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Whannell is going to be able to repeat The Invisible Man's success.

Wolf Man arrived in theaters on Friday amid mostly negative reviews (it currently sits at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes), and the movie has now come in well below its already modest opening weekend box office estimates.

The downbeat werewolf flick was on track for a $17M-$21M bow, but only managed to take in $10.6M over three days (analysts believe it'll hit $12M by Monday).

It's worth noting that Wolf Man did have a relatively low production budget of $25 million,...

Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man is now in theaters, and the Universal Monster reboot may be facing an uphill struggle after failing to take a big enough bite out of the box office over the weekend.

We're still waiting on international numbers, but the movie only managed to take in $4.45M on Friday (including Thursday previews) in North America, and is now on track for a $17M-$21M debut. This wouldn't exactly be a disaster for a film with a reported $25 million budget, but audiences really don't seem to be too fussed about this one.

Wolf Man has earned a C- CinemaScore, which is disappointing even for an R-rated horror movie. It's also dropped down to a "rotten" 54% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Again, overseas takings may be a lot better (and that relatively low budget has to be taken into consideration), but as things stand, Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King looks set to claim the No.

When Universal Pictures’ attempt at a Marvel-style “Dark Universe” flopped, Blumhouse stepped in with its own take on classic movie monsters. One of their biggest hits was The Invisible Man, which earned rave reviews and pulled in $144.5 million worldwide on just a $7 million budget.

Director Leigh Whannell, after working on The Invisible Man, shifted his focus to Wolf Man. For years, there’s been talk about a sequel focusing on Elisabeth Moss’s character, the “Invisible Woman.”

Jason Blum and James Wan have hinted that they’re open to continuing the story. However, Whannell recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he’s not interested in directing a sequel.

Whannell explained that crafting an ending is one of the hardest parts of screenwriting, mentioning his admiration for movies like Se7en, which he recently saw in IMAX.

He said he’s proud of how The Invisible Man ended and doesn’t want...

When Universal Pictures' plan for an McU-style "Dark Universe" fell apart, Blumhouse wasted no time putting its own spin on those iconic movie monsters. The Invisible Man was among the first and received rave reviews before grossing $144.5 million worldwide on a mere $7 million budget.

While filmmaker Leigh Whannell has since moved on to Wolf Man, there's been chatter for years about him helming a sequel revolving around Elisabeth Moss' "Invisible Woman."

The movie ended by teasing a vigilante-style follow-up and both Jason Blum and James Wan have left the door open to it becoming a reality in previous interviews.

Unfortunately, Whannell doesn't seem overly interested and closed the door on stepping behind the camera for The Invisible Woman while talking to The Hollywood Reporter (via FearHQ.com).

"An ending is the hardest thing to do in screenwriting. It’s the holy grail of screenwriting, and I revere movies with great endings.

This article contains spoilers for "Wolf Man."

Aging is the ultimate body horror, as it's the long, slow road toward death that every living thing must experience, bar none. This process, as with most body horror, is primarily expressed physically. After all, most people will say that they're mentally as young as they ever were, while they're observing how their body is having issues performing the way that it used to; it's highly common to see a social media post by a 30-something person lamenting their newfound back issues or some such ailment. A person's perception of time passing may make it seem like the years have gone by in a flash, but the slow process of aging allows most people to make the physical transition easier, as it happens nearly imperceptibly.

Yet that perception is drastically challenged when something occurs to change our status quo. In my own experience,...

Wolf Man is now playing in theaters in most major markets worldwide, and we're delving into the horror reboot's intense final act while touching on how this latest take on the classic Universal Monster differs from other versions of the terrifying tale.

Spoilers follow.

The movie begins with an overprotective (borderline abusive) father taking his young son hunting in the dense Oregon woods. After an encounter with an unseen creature, the man becomes obsessed with tracking the monster down.

We then jump forward 30 years, as Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott) receives a letter informing him that his estranged father has legally been declared dead after going missing in the woods years earlier. Blake convinces his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) to accompany him to his dad's secluded house to pack up his belongings.

After swerving to avoid a shadowy figure standing in the middle of the road,...

The reboot of the classic Universal Monsters property The Wolf Man from Blumhouse Productions and The Invisible Man (2020) director Leigh Whannell is now in theatres – and JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray wasn’t very impressed with it, giving it a 6/10 review that you can read Here and describing it as “well-acted, but not very scary.” Now, we want to know, what did you think of Wolf Man? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The leads of this version of Wolf Man are Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, both of whom were in the 2011 film Martha Marcy May Marlene. Abbott is taking on the role of a man whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator. Garner is playing his wife. Sam Jaeger is also in the cast, along with child actress Matilda Firth, playing a character named Ginger: “Female, 10 years old, white. Blake and Charlotte’s daughter.

Having already tackled one of the biggest villains in Universal Studio’s Mount Rushmore of Monsters, Leigh Whannell returns to battle the beast in Wolf Man (2025). Remaking a classic is never an easy task but, as with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (2024) and really any picture that’s has been worked and re-worked so many times, it’s less about the painting itself and more about how the artist decides to fill the space inside the lines. For better or worse, Whannell and co-writer Corbett Tuck find new ground to recontextualize the classic story for a modern audience, using themes and motifs from the contemporary horror playbook in an attempt to make these monsters of yesteryear feel universal once more.

Wolf Man (2025) stars Julia Garner (Apartment 7A) and Christopher Abbott (Possessor) as Blake & Charlotte, a couple on the verge of collapse. In an attempt to rekindle the fire of their family bond,...

Director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man, the latest horror feature from Universal and Blumhouse, has already made $1.4 million in Thursday previews. The movie officially made its theatrical debut on Jan. 17 and, per Variety, is expected to take the top spot for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend with between $17 million and $21 million.

Wolf Man, which is co-written by Whannell and Corbett Tuck, is going up against the new R-rated Sony comedy One of Them Days at this weekend’s box office. Heading into the opening weekend, the movie's debut Rotten Tomatoes score has also been revealed. Currently, Wolf Man is scored at 54%, and its audience score is a bit higher at 63%.

The film follows the Lovell family, led by Blake (Christopher Abbott), who inherits his family home after his estranged father goes missing. Blake then decides to move his wife Charlotte (Julie Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) from...

It’s been an agonizing five-year wait for Leigh Whannell’s follow-up to his near-universally acclaimed The Invisible Man.

The Elisabeth Moss-led sci-fi thriller was the last hit movie before Covid forever altered the entertainment industry and world alike, having grossed nearly $140 million against a $7 million budget. Whannell’s victory lap may have been cut short as the U.S. population retreated inside during his film’s third week of release, but between The Invisible Man and his 2018 cult gem Upgrade, the Australian native officially reinvented himself as a must-see genre specialist, shedding his long-established identity as “one of the Saw guys” and “one half of Wan/Whannell.”

As the pandemic became more and more prolonged, Whannell and his co-writer/wife Corbett Tuck decided to channel their collectively challenging experience into Wolf Man, which is now another modern reimagining of a classic Universal monster à la The Invisible Man.

The wolf has come out to play, and some horror fans are not interested. However, others have found a deeper meaning to Leigh Whannell's recently released Wolf Man, a reimagining of a Universal monster classic. While Whannell had already prepared himself for criticism and hate of his wolf-transformation film, the film is proving to be extremely divisive among horror fans.

Sitting at 55% on the Tomatometer and 65% on the Popcornmeter, it seems that the Universal Pictures werewolf flick has divided fans and critics alike. As of right now, Wolf Man might be another example of how flashy advertising, unique screenings, and stunning practical effects can only take a story so far in the hearts of audiences.

Some reviews criticize the lackluster story, while others praise the visual effects and slow burn of Wolf Man. Well, everyone knows that a film will never please every audience member, but it seems like...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson for Wbgr-fm on January 16th, 2025, reviewing “Wolf Man,” the latest version reboot of the classic man-into-monster story. In theaters beginning January 17th.

Blake (Christopher Abbott) is a stay-at-home Dad in the big city, with workaholic wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). When he receives a notice that his abusive father Grady has been declared dead after being missing for years, the family heads to remote Oregon and his spooky farm house to clear it out. Their truck is forced off the road after nearly hitting a strange figure, and Dad gets slashed fending off a two legged man creature. This begins a nightmare of an overnight period, with the family hiding in the farm house and Dad slowly converting to a wolf like animal.

“Wolf Man” is in theaters beginning January 3rd. Featuring Christopher Abbott,...

Stars: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Sam Jaeger, Matilda Firth, Benedict Hardie, Ben Prendergast, Zac Chandler | Written by Leigh Whannell, Corbett Tuck | Directed by Leigh Whannell

Writer-director Leigh Whannell follows 2020’s horror hit The Invisible Man with another revamp of a classic Universal monster movie. Unfortunately, it’s not quite a howling success – it delivers its fair share of tension and gore moments, but things get a bit hairier when it comes to landing on a suitable allegory and the script ultimately disappoints.

Wolf Man opens with a prologue, in which pre-teen Blake (Zac Chandler) has a scary encounter with an unseen creature in the woods, while out hunting with his stern, militaristic father Grady (Sam Jaeger). Thirty years later, a now grown-up Blake (Christopher Abbott) inherits a remote woodland cabin after his father is finally declared dead, having disappeared without a trace, many years earlier.

A struggling writer, Blake is...

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for "Wolf Man."

Just call Leigh Whannell the monster whisperer. There have been few instances where a studio has struggled so mightily (or so publicly) in trying to get audiences interested in their crown jewel of an IP -- in this case, the classic stable of Universal Monsters. By the same token, however, the turnaround has been just as sudden and convincing. Since 2020, the year that Whannell's "The Invisible Man" released and promptly blew everyone's minds, the franchise has enjoyed a marked improvement across the board. Not coincidentally, this also coincided with the decision-makers finally giving up on their grand dreams for some shared universe that could rival the likes of DC and Marvel. Instead of a world where Dr. Jekyll plays the Nick Fury role of assembling monsters to fight, uh, other monsters (I guess?), we've been treated to a number of standalone...

The most recent attempt by Blumhouse Productions to jumpstart a Universal Pictures horror franchise – Wolf Man – breaks no new ground for the genre and instead resorts to often repulsive effects to convey horror rather than creating it organically.

Early in the film, Blake (Christopher Abbott) inherits a rural Oregon farm when his father mysteriously vanishes and is declared dead by authorities. As the news comes on the heels of continuing troubles within Blake’s marriage to Charlotte (Julia Garner), the couple decides that taking a break from the city to settle the state of Blake’s father as a sort of vacation, along with their daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth), might be just the thing to get them back on track again. However, after they arrive in Oregon and cross paths with something in the woods before arriving at the father’s farmhouse, Blake begins acting peculiarly causing Charlotte and Ginger...

Writer-director Leigh Whannell’s “The Invisible Man” was one of the best films of 2020, a thoughtful and terrifying thriller about domestic abuse that earned comparison with the work of horror masters like John Carpenter and Wes Craven. Understandably, the studio and production company behind the movie — Universal and Blumhouse, respectively — wanted something similar from Whannell for his next film. The director himself wasn’t so sure.

“I was a bit wary of leaping into another monster movie,” he told IndieWire. When Universal and Blumhouse asked him if he had any ideas for a new “Wolf Man” movie, he was apprehensive — but his prospective employers weren’t willing to give up easily. “They were very clever. They basically said, ‘If you were to do it, what would be your take? No commitment, just what you would do.’ And of course, I started thinking about it as an exercise.”

Once Whannell came...

Ever since James Wan and Leigh Whannell introduced a little horror to the world with Saw, they have become exciting names in the horror genre. Mr. Whannell continues to impress from his directorial debut in the world of supernatural frights with Insidious: Chapter 3. From his excellent Upgrade to the wonderfully suspenseful and expertly crafted The Invisible Man – an absolute favorite of mine. And now, he brings us the impressive Wolf Man, the filmmaker’s take on the 1941 classic starring Lon Chaney Jr. Thankfully, Whannell offers up a terrific cast that includes Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, and Matilda Firth. And frankly, this one is such a personal take on the story that it struck a chord with this viewer.

Recently, we spoke to the cast, as well as executive producer Beatriz Sequeira. We also sat down for the first of our two-part interview with the man of the hour, Leigh Whannell.

Of all the attempts from Universal to revamp their classic creature features for new generations, the Wolf Man stands upright as one of the most compellingly tricky beasts to wrangle. Unlike other contenders like “Dracula” and “Frankenstein,” both entrenched in enduring pieces of 19th-century literature and subsequently retooled ad nauseam by a long string of auteur filmmakers, this creature remains firmly associated with the studio’s famed 1941 Lon Chaney, Jr. vehicle; say “werewolf,” and your imagination runs to any number of varying iterations of the classic beast, but say “Wolf Man” and you know exactly which hairy-faced, bipedal canine is creeping through the fog.

Given the past failed attempts to reintroduce the classic murderer’s row of monsters to the social media era—Tom Cruise still has nightmares in the shape of the gaping void that is the Dark Universe logo—what “Wolf Man” would need to succeed was some...

Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, and Christopher Abbott in ‘Wolf Man’ (Photo © 2025 Universal Studios)

After the apparent failure of Tom Cruise’s The Mummy in 2017, the plug was pulled on the Dark Universe reboot plans from Universal’s Monster movies. But then…Blumhouse’s partnership with Universal brought in writer/director Leigh Whannell to reimagine The Invisible Man in 2019. Which was awesome. So awesome that Blumhouse/Universal gave Whannell a crack at Wolf Man.

Wolf Man is about a man named Blake (Christopher Abbott from Kraven the Hunter) whose father was obsessed with a legendary creature that stalked the woods near their cabin when Blake was a boy. When his father passes away, Blake brings his wife, Charlotte (Ozark’s Julia Garner), and daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth from Hullraisers), with him to pack up the cabin and put the estate in order. On the way there, the family learns that the...

The moment we first caught a glimpse of Wolf Man's titular monster during last year's Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, it was clear Blumhouse's take on the iconic character would be divisive.

In terms of creature design, it's not what fans expected and definitely not what the majority wanted. Alas, it now sounds like that's at least one of the contributing factors to filmmaker Leigh Whannell's take on the franchise being too light on scares in a reboot that lacks bite.

The review embargo lifted today and while some critics enjoyed this fresh take on the most iconic of all werewolves, most agree that Wolf Man is a far cry from the edge-of-your-seat horror movie Whannell delivered with The Invisible Man in 2020.

According to Variety, "'Wolf Man' wants to say something — about the fear of inheriting aggression or mental illness from our parents, perhaps — but winds up making him pathetic in the process.

Blumhouse is back with what seems like an annual horror movie release with Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man, a reboot of 1941's The Wolf Man, the first film to feature the classic Universal movie monster. While January is sometimes seen as a dumping ground for lackluster horror movies, the lift of the review embargo on Wolf Man indicates that Blumhouse isn't repeating the massive issues of their last early release, Night Swim. In fact, Whannell's take is an ambitious enough addition to the new generation of Universal monster movies the company has been making that began with 2020's The Invisible Man, but its characterizations are lacking compared to its predecessor.

In David Rooney's review from The Hollywood Reporter, he points to the performances of Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, who he says "Do a fine job ratcheting up the fear factor as their characters' strained marriage is tested by...

‘Wolf Man’ is a new horror movie directed by Leigh Whannell, who co-wrote the script with Corbett Tuck. It’s a reboot of the classic 1941 film ‘The Wolf Man’ and stars Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, and Sam Jaeger.

The movie was first announced in 2014 as part of Universal’s ‘Dark Universe,’ a planned shared universe of classic monster films. However, after ‘The Mummy’ (2017) didn’t do well, Universal decided to focus on standalone films. Whannell’s success with ‘The Invisible Man’ (2020) reignited interest in monster films, and Universal accepted a pitch from Ryan Gosling for a new ‘Wolf Man’ film.

Gosling was originally going to star, but he dropped out in 2023. Whannell took over as director and the movie got a new cast.

The story follows Blake, a family man who moves to Oregon with his wife and daughter after inheriting his childhood home. The family is attacked by a werewolf one night,...

The secret to making a great wolf man movie — and you gotta pinky swear not to tell anybody about this, because it’s a secret — is that the “wolf man” part is optional. Werewolf stories aren’t about transforming into half-human/half-canine hybrids as much as they’re about people wrestling with their darkest impulses. Being attacked by a monster isn’t the scary part, it’s the idea that you’re living with a monster inside of you, and are always one mistake away from destroying your life and hurting the people you love. If you can afford great makeup effects and you want to put a werewolf in there, knock yourself out. But you can tell the same type of story without buying a ton of latex and fake hair. You just gotta call it something like “Red Dragon” or “Dexter” or “The Stepfather” instead.

Leigh Whannell’s...

For as long as we've been telling one another scary stories in the dark, the monsters lurking just beyond the light of the campfire and dancing on the very edge of our imaginations have never been mere monsters. Whether it be the Baba Yaga waiting to snatch misbehaving children away, dragons heralding the final challenge for gallant knights to prove their chivalry, or bloodthirsty vampires representing the darkest and most insatiable lusts within ourselves, each one has a very specific tale to tell about ourselves and the frightening world around us.

The vaunted rogues gallery that makes up the classic Universal Monsters franchise is no exception. That probably helps explain why Hollywood refused to let even a monumental train wreck like the aborted Dark Universe experiment derail their plans to make this happen, one way or another. After spending years (and ungodly amounts of money) begging audiences to give a you-know-what about Van Helsing spinoffs,...

Leigh Whannell, the visionary filmmaker behind the acclaimed 2020 adaptation of The Invisible Man, returns to reimagine another horror classic with Wolf Man. Written by Whannell alongside Corbett Tuck, this reboot of The Wolf Man (1941), delivers a gripping, if occasionally uneven, exploration of terror and trauma.

Christopher Abbott is Blake, a husband and father struggling to reconcile with painful childhood memories and feelings of inadequacy as a jobless writer. When news arrives that his estranged father has been officially declared dead years after his disappearance in the wilderness, Blake is forced to confront the ghosts of his past. What begins as a journey to settle his father’s affairs soon evolves into a nightmarish ordeal that puts both his sanity and his family’s safety at risk.

Joined by his wife Charlotte, played by Julia Garner, and their young daughter Ginger, Blake returns to his remote childhood home. The tension within the family is palpable,...

Straight off the heels of the acclaimed Nosferatu remake, writer/director Leigh Whannell is transforming a different classic horror film with Wolf Man, having already remade a Universal Monster with his excellent Invisible Man. While the 1941 monochrome masterpiece The Wolf Man would serve to influence werewolf depictions in Hollywood for decades to come, there haven't been many acclaimed wolf works over the past two decades. Universal Pictures' last attempt, 2010's The Wolfman with Benecio del Toro, was underwhelming, but horror fans are hopeful about this go-around from Whannell.

The filmmaker — whose recent Hollywood premiere of Wolf Man was canceled due to the ongoing LA wildfires — has taken a more grounded approach to the beast's origins, doing away with the fortune-teller and pentagrams of the 1941 film (and basically every other plot point of that movie). The more humane script by Whannell and Corbett Tuck offers some clever devices for fans to dissect after the fact,...

Leigh Whannell is a gifted filmmaker, but Wolf Man is his lowlight. Whannell’s second Universal Monsters adaptation is a werewolf movie in protest. The bones of George Waggner’s 1941 The Wolf Man are exhumed, but Whannell and his wife/co-writer Corbett Tuck strip the remains of meaty storytelling while trying to replicate the character-driven exceptionalities of 2020’s The Invisible Man. Unfortunately, Wolf Man is notably less successful as a creature feature that voids traditional lycan traits for grounded social commentaries, too truncated and no-frills. Differentiation, itself, is not an issue—more how Whannell’s readaptation is dully minimalistic yet simultaneously too off the beaten path. We’re in full-moon Cabin Fever territory bordering on Wrong Turn’s turf, a headscratcher in a title dubbed Wolf Man.

Christopher Abbott stars as Blake Lovell, an estranged Oregonian writer living in San Francisco with workaholic journalist wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and adorable...

It’s been said that all monster movies fit into at least one of three categories. Werewolf movies play on the notion that within every man lives a beast waiting to be unleashed. Vampire films tap into our collective fear of the unknown, which can encompass everything from the threat of disease to the perception of strangers as potential predators. And Frankenstein stories explore the risks when man plays God, creating life and facing the consequences.

Blumhouse’s shrewd 2020 reboot of the classic Universal horror film “The Invisible Man” cleverly played off the latter two, as Elisabeth Moss embodied a woman trying to escape an abusive relationship with a mad scientist. Directed by Leigh Whannell, the low-budget thriller was so successful that Universal rushed to adapt other titles from its classic monsters catalog, imagining a “Dark Universe” series that would update — and eventually connect — them all.

Somewhere along the way,...

If you found Joe Johnston’s failed 2010 vehicle for Benicio del Toro, The Wolfman, bogged down by Gothic melodrama, fussy folklore and CGI excess, then the comparatively bare-bones storytelling of Universal’s latest return to the monster movie hall of fame, Wolf Man, might be more to your taste. This isn’t a reimagining on the level of Leigh Whannell’s previous foray into the classic horror vaults, The Invisible Man. But there’s no shortage of intensity or gore, not to mention brisk efficiency in the way the script isolates a fragile family unit before plunging them into lycanthropic mayhem.

The confinement of all but a few scenes to the single setting of an old farmhouse and barn nestled in the remote Oregon woodlands gives Wolf Man the claustrophobic feel of a Covid-hangover movie. Which is both a strength and a limitation. But Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner do...

This writer is a self-proclaimed connoisseur of “January horror”: the schlocky studio horror flicks that serve as counterprogramming to the wider releases of awards nominees that only came out in NYC or LA in December. However, recent years saw films like 2022’s Scream and M3GAN turn January horror into bonafide moviegoing events. Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man is the latest in that trend, but it forsakes what makes this genre work in the first place: fun.

Wolf Man Review

Like Whannell’s last take on a classic Universal Monster, Wolf Man is less of a remake than a modern interpretation. However, Whannell and co-writer Corbett Tuck reinterpret this classic by borrowing from the dozens of other werewolf movies that have come out since. The result is a film that feels generic and unoriginal to the point of being entirely disengaging.

The best thing about Wolf Man, bar none, is its special effects work.

Director Leigh Whannell follows The Invisible Man with a much more generic, traditional creature feature that is nevertheless still fun. Here’s our Wolf Man review.

Big, expensive studio horror has endured a pretty well deserved poor reputation over across the last decade or two. Big budgets don’t always guarantee good films, and horror seems to particularly suffer when produced at a more costly level. In that sense, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man could have been a total car crash, but instead, the Saw scribe offered us an ambitious, thoughtful film about abuse. It helped he found a way to make it for a mere $7m, buying himself a lot of creative control as he did so.

Whannell tries to repeat his success with Wolf Man, with reasonable results. Here, the writer-director tackles another classic Universal monster, but instead of The Invisible Man’s high-concept approach, Whannell goes for a more contained,...

What if a man… were also a wolf? It’s a question that’s compelled filmmakers for more than 100 years, inspiring a monster movie classic (George Waggner’s “The Wolf Man”), a handful of enduring cult hits, and an endless series of howlingly bad Hollywood misfires from otherwise reliable directors. Mike Nichols’ “Wolf” was seductively bizarre enough to work on its own terms, but Joe Johnston’s “The Wolfman” — a $150 million Benicio del Toro vehicle that confirmed Universal’s desperation to update its oldest horror IP — was neutered by corporate interference in similar fashion to how Miramax had declawed Wes Craven’s “Cursed” a few years earlier. And of course, the “Dark Universe” mega-franchise that was meant to revive so many of Lon Chaney Jr.’s most immortal roles imploded before the rise of its first full moon.

In that light, perhaps the most impressive thing about Leigh Whannell’s...

After the low-key success of 2020’s reboot of The Invisible Man, hampered by theater closures during the pandemic but critically acclaimed, Universal and Blumhouse decided to take another whack at a proud member of the studio’s storied classic monsters franchise that also includes Frankenstein and Dracula. In this case, it’s 1941’s chilling The Wolf Man, in which Lon Chaney Jr. played the memorable title character.

Creating a whole new story for a contemporary setting, director and co-writer (with Corbett Tuck) Leigh Whannell is back after so skillfully reimagining The Invisible Man as a female-centric horror tale of domestic abuse, among other issues. That movie for my money was one of the most impressive of all recent horror movies because it not only took a legendary figure of terror but made it pertinent in all kinds of unexpected ways for audiences, particularly with a powerful lead performance by Elisabeth Moss.

Fear is contagious, and it can evolve into something worse. So too can the false certainty that the things we fear can be outplanned or outwitted. An anxious film initially written during the height of Covid, Wolf Man is a hairy hybrid of creature feature and family tragedy much like George Waggner’s ‘40s original.

A new featurette entitled “Wolf Moon” has been released in anticipation of the release of Blumhouse’s upcoming Wolf Man. You can check it out above!

Synopsis: From Blumhouse and visionary writer-director Leigh Whannell, the creators of the chilling modern monster tale The Invisible Man, comes a terrifying new lupine nightmare: Wolf Man. Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte, fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger. But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on,...

Wolf Man is a reboot of the classic Universal Monsters movie The Wolfman, which focuses on a man who becomes a werewolf after falling victim to an ancient curse. In this version, a man must protect himself and his family when they are being stalked, terrorized, and haunted by a deadly werewolf at night during a full moon. As the night goes on, he starts to act strangely himself, hinting that something else is very wrong.

Wolf Man is directed by Leigh Whannell, and it was co-written by Whannell himself and Corbett Tuck. Whannell’s previous films with Blumhouse include The Invisible Man, Upgrade, and Insidious: Chapter 3. The director is also known for his work on the first three Saw films. Wolf Man heads to theaters on January 17.

Related 4 Movies To Watch Before 2025's Wolf Man

In 2025, the monster movie remake, Wolf Man, will hit theaters, and the following are...

Blumhouse, the studio that redefined modern horror with The Invisible Man, is set to unleash the Wolf Man, in cinemas on 17 January. Directed by Leigh Whannell, the mastermind behind Upgrade and Insidious: Chapter 3, this darkly atmospheric film plunges audiences into a night of survival, dread, and deadly transformation.

Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott takes the lead as Blake, a San Francisco man grappling with the weight of familial turmoil. After the mysterious disappearance of his father, Blake inherits his childhood home nestled deep in the Oregon wilderness. With his marriage to Charlotte, played by Emmy winner Julia Garner, teetering on the brink, Blake convinces her and their young daughter, Ginger, to join him on a journey to reconnect with his past and each other.

Their arrival at the remote property begins with unease and quickly descends into chaos. Attacked by an unseen predator, the family takes refuge inside the farmhouse...