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“Wolf Man” is a 2025 film directed by Leigh Whannell, featuring the likes of Christopher Abbott as Blake, Julia Garner as Charlotte, Matilda Firth as Ginger, Sam Jaeger as Grady, and more. The film follows the story of a family, who travels to Oregon to tie loose ends but are attacked by a strange creature resembling a man.

“Wolf Man” opens with a message stating that in 1995, a hiker went missing in the mountains of central Oregon. Over the years, locals reported strange sightings, leading members of an isolated community to believe the missing man had contracted an animal-borne virus they called “Hills Fever.” However, long before this, Indigenous people had a different name for the same affliction, they called it “Face of the Wolf.”

Wolf Man (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis: Who is Blake and Why Does He Return to Oregon?

At the start of the film, we are taken to a remote farmhouse,...

The first week of February kicks off with the at-home premiere of this year’s biggest theatrical release so far, while the big screen is taken over by a brand new original slasher movie.

Here’s all the new horror that released February 3 – February 7, 2025!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

First up, Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man already made its way out of theaters this week and howled its way home, the Universal Monsters reboot now available on Digital outlets.

You can rent Wolf Man for $19.99 or purchase it for $24.99.

In Wolf Man, “Seeking a fresh start, Blake (Christopher Abbott) moves his wife Charlotte (Julia 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,...

Practical effects and werewolf movies go hand-in-hand, with original classics including Werewolf of London and The Wolf Man paving the way for the transformative effects to enter a whole new era with films including An American Werewolf in London and The Howling.

For this year’s Wolf Man, a reboot of the original Universal Monsters classic, director Leigh Whannell and prosthetic designer Arjen Tuiten set out to put their own original stamp on the iconic monster, and you can appreciate the film’s practical effects on Digital now.

Fresh out of theaters, Whannell’s Wolf Man is available at home today, before clawing its way onto SteelBook 4K Uhd, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 18 via Universal.

The Digital release includes a featurette titled Designing Wolf Man, which provides a closer look at the conceptual designs, sculptures and prosthetic make-up that aided in the creation of Whannell’s latest monster.

The home media release of Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man was just recently announced, and will include a host of behind-the-scenes bonus features that take a look at the making of the film. We have a sneak peek of "Hands on Horror," featuring the cast and crew discussing the attempted escape sequence:

"Leigh Whannell brings a dark new twist to one of Universal’s most iconic monsters in Wolf Man, available to own or rent on Digital February 4, 2025 and on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray and DVD March 18, 2025 from Blumhouse and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Wolf Man contains over 30 minutes of behind-the-scenes content, including a peek at the terrifying Wolf Man transformation, breakdowns of the gnarly action & scares scenes throughout the film, and much more! Wolf Man is directed by horror-acclaimed filmmaker Leigh Whannell, and stars Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Sam Jaeger (“The Handmaid’s Tale”), Matilda Firth (“Hullraisers”), Ben Prendergast (“The Sojourn Audio Drama...

Wolf Man on Digital, 4K Uhd, Blu-ray, and DVD: "Leigh Whannell brings a dark new twist to one of Universal’s most iconic monsters in Wolf Man, available to own or rent on Digital February 4, 2025 and on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray and DVD March 18, 2025 from Blumhouse and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Wolf Man contains over 30 minutes of behind-the-scenes content, including a peek at the terrifying Wolf Man transformation, breakdowns of the gnarly action & scares scenes throughout the film, and much more! Wolf Man is directed by horror-acclaimed filmmaker Leigh Whannell, and stars Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Sam Jaeger (“The Handmaid’s Tale”), Matilda Firth (“Hullraisers”), Ben Prendergast (“The Sojourn Audio Drama”) and Benedict Hardie (The Invisible Man).

From Blumhouse and the director of The Invisible Man comes a modern take on the classic monster story, Wolf Man. Seeking a fresh start, Blake moves his wife Charlotte and daughter Ginger to his childhood home in rural Oregon.

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...

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Companion is a sci-fi thriller film written and directed by Drew Hancock. The 2025 film follows a young couple going on a weekend getaway with friends at a remote cabin. Their fun getaway soon turns bloody when it is revealed that one of them is a companion robot. Companion stars Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillen, and Rupert Friend. So, if you loved the thrilling story, sci-fi elements, and compelling characters in Companion, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

M3GAN (Starz & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Universal Pictures

M3GAN is a sci-fi horror thriller film directed by Gerard Johnstone from a screenplay by Akela Cooper. The 2022 film follows Gemma, a brilliant roboticist who takes in her niece, Cady, after she lost her parents in an accident. Gemma designed a lifelike doll known as M3GAN,...

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...

Leigh Whannell has revealed 'Wolf Man' was inspired by his “deeply personal” experience of a loved one battling disease during the Covid-19 pandemic.The 48-year-old filmmaker helmed the reboot of Universal Monsters franchise about an isolated mother and daughter who are forced to live out their worst nightmare after the father begins to transform into something unrecognisable, and Whannell has now shared the movie’s premise came to him after his close friend began to suffer with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als) - a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord - during the lockdowns caused by the global health crisis.Speaking with with website JoBlo, the filmmaker said: “I was raising three young children … it was difficult during Covid staying in the house all day and I had a close friend of mine who was suffering from Als. This disease robbed her of everything.“It’s a very insidious progression,...

Wolf Man joins Nosferatu among 2025's re-imaginings of films whose age is perhaps better measured in centuries than decades. It takes its name and core plot elements from the 1941 film though several of the makeup and creature designs seem to owe more to other Lon Chaney roles.

Blake (Christopher Abbott) had a childhood spent in wooded wilds, with a Marine father his only family in a fortified forest farm. We're given a sketch of the compound in a brief prologue which includes a prototypical sequence of events. A figure appears, a brief chase, a siege, and then a moment of reflection and revelation.

The parallels are especially obvious in what might be New York, character moments as wedded to the grid as the streets of that city. The young Blake (Zac Chandler) would recognise how his older self treats daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). I missed a scene where Blake...

The weekend did not unfold quite as Blumhouse and Universal had planned. With the release of director Leigh Whannell's "Wolf Man," the studios probably figured they had a slam dunk hit on their hands. Unfortunately, that's not the way things shook out. Whannell's latest majorly underperformed, falling well short of expectations. Rather than top the charts, it had to settle for third place in 2025's first major surprise.

"Wolf Man" opened to an estimated $10.5 million domestically, which was below even the most modest projections heading into the weekend. Overseas audiences aren't going to be much help here either, as the film opened soft internationally with just $4.8 million. Blumhouse tends to make movies on the cheap, but this one carries a $25 million price tag before marketing. Now, the monster flick is facing a steep uphill battle to profitability.

As the weekend approached, "Wolf Man" was looking at a debut in the $20 million range.

Julia Garner thinks every actor should do a horror film at least once.The 30-year-old actress stars in director Leigh Whannell’s spooky flick ‘Wolf Man’, and although she found making the film "intense", Garner insists the experience of working on the movie allowed her to "feel like emotionally [she] can handle a lot" - something she thinks every actor should go through.Speaking to Collider, Garner said: "I think as hard as it was, how intense it was, the intense work made it cool in a weird way. The intense emotion constantly, as hard and at times awful as that was, it made me feel like emotionally I can handle a lot."I think every actor should do horror at least once."‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ star added she "disassociates" when making a horror flick like ‘Wolf Man’, and reflected on the contrast between how she can feel during...

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...

Leigh Whannell, writer and director of The Invisible Man, brings his chilling approach to another Universal Monsters adaptation with Wolf Man. From Blumhouse production, this reimagining of the 1941 film explores Blake’s (Christopher Abbott) harrowing transformation into a werewolf after returning to his estranged father’s remote Oregon home. Alongside his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth), the Wolf Man story follows Blake's battle with a monstrous curse and the slow, terrifying loss of his humanity.

In an interview with The New York Times, Whannell shared how he conceived the werewolf's point-of-view shots. The director's latest monster movie included a standout feature: scenes shot from Blake's perspective, giving a visceral glimpse into Blake's harrowing experience as he slowly transforms into a monster and attacks his family. Here's what he had to say:

I had this idea of the camera moving around the room and suddenly what seemed like gibberish became legible,...

Wolf Man has had an unpromising global debut. The Universal monster remake follows a man (Christopher Abbott) whose lycanthropic transformation threatens the lives of his wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth), who are trapped in a house with him. The Blumhouse movie was directed by Leigh Whannell, who previously helmed the 2020 remake The Invisible Man to great critical and commercial success. The Wolf Man release began during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend, taking No. 3 at the domestic box office behind the 2024 hit Mufasa: The Lion King and the comedy One of Them Days.

Per Variety, as of Sunday morning, Wolf Man is projected to close out its opening weekend with a worldwide box office gross of $15.3 million. This total comes from an underwhelming $4.83 million haul from 53 international markets, combined with a roughly $10.5 million 3-day domestic total. While the MLK Day holiday weekend sees its domestic projections...

(from left) Charlotte (Julia Garner) and Ginger (Matilda Firth) in Wolf Man, directed by Leigh Whannell. Photo Credit: Nicola Dove/Universal Pictures Copyright © 2024 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved. Emmy-winning actress Julia Garner, known for her memorable performances in Ozark and Inventing Anna, takes on a dramatic new challenge in Wolf Man, a thrilling reimagining of the iconic horror classic. The story is set at a remote farmhouse, where a family becomes the target of an unseen predator. But as the night unfolds, the father undergoes a grotesque transformation, turning into something monstrous and unrecognizable. Blending intense scares with gripping suspense, Wolf Man promises to deliver an unforgettable cinematic experience for horror fans. Garner, known for bringing depth to every role, reveals that Wolf Man is a film best experienced in theaters, where the intensity truly comes to life. (Click on the media bar below to her Julia Garner.) https://www.

The werewolf in Wolf Man looks much different than other werewolves featured in movies. Wolf Man was directed by Leigh Whannell, who wanted to portray a new take on the classic monster. The story of Wolf Man follows Blake, who returns to his childhood home in Oregon with his wife and daughter after his dad has officially been declared deceased. While driving to the house, they are attacked by a monster, which scratches Blake. Blake's scratch causes him to slowly and tragically transform into a werewolf.

The cast of Wolf Man includes Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, and Matilda Firth. Abbott portrays Blake, whose appearance and behavior slowly changes throughout the course of the movie as he becomes more wolf than man. By the end of Wolf Man, Blake fully transforms into a werewolf. However, the werewolf in Wolf Man looks much different than in other films, such as 1941's The Wolf Man...

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.

Plot: A man (Christopher Abbott) is scratched by a mysterious monster while defending his family. Soon, he begins to transform, endangering the people he was trying to protect.

Review: Wolf Man is co-writer/ director Leigh Whannell’s attempt to ground yet another of the classic Universal Monsters following his hit The Invisible Man. Like that movie, it works more-or-less as its own thing, separate from any established lore. While The Invisible Man was basically an elevated stalker thriller, Wolf Man is an attempt to take on body horror with heavy doses of family drama baked in. The result is a decent-enough thriller that lacks the thrills one might expect from a werewolf movie, opting for atmosphere and emotion instead. While it sports a terrific performance from star Christopher Abbott, it also totally lacks scares, making it a movie that might alienate horror fans hoping for something a little more edge-of-your-seat than what Whannel delivers.

The “Wolf Man” is here.

Universal and Blumhouse’s latest update of a classic Universal Monsters character, following 2020’s excellent “The Invisible Man” (also written and directed by “Wolf Man” filmmaker Leigh Whannell) has finally arrived. In this blood-soaked retelling, Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott) takes his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and child Ginger (Matilda Firth) out to his family’s secluded home, following the death of his estranged father (Sam Jaeger). But while there they encounter a terrifying creature and must all attempt to make it out – and stay alive.

But how does “Wolf Man” wrap up?

We’re here to tell you. But we first must issue a major spoiler warning. Reading this before seeing “Wolf Man” might lead to a nightmarish nocturnal creature going after you. And we wouldn’t want that!

First thing’s first – who is the wolf man?

There are actually two wolf mans… wolf men … Whatever.

Universal and Blumhouse’s “Wolf Man” howls into theaters on Friday.

Co-written and directed by Leigh Whannell, who also made 2020’s update of “The Invisible Man,” this “Wolf Man” follows a young family, who encounter something horrifying in the woods and attempt to survive the night.

But is “Wolf Man” part of a larger cinematic universe? Let’s break it down.

Is “Wolf Man” part of a Universal Monsters universe?

It is not. At least not in the way that you’re imagining.

What does that mean?

A few years ago, Universal got very ambitious about what they referred to as the Dark Universe – a series of interconnected movies, much like Marvel Studios’ Marvel Cinematic Universe, that would feature Universal’s line-up of big screen beasts.

The first movie out of the gate was 2017’s “The Mummy,” a very expensive action movie starring Tom Cruise that underperformed at the box office.

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

Before Leigh Whannell took his talents to the Universal Monsters franchise for a double dip, the Australian filmmaker first plied his trade as an actor, a writer on the "Saw" and "Insidious" franchises, and (most importantly for our purposes here) a director who first made a name for himself with stylish, low-budget thrillers. His precise career trajectory has hardly been a typical one compared to most, but the broad strokes of working his way up the studio system until reaching his apex — thus far, at least — with "The Invisible Man" and most recently "Wolf Man" (which I reviewed for /Film here) couldn't have been more ideal. It's hard to miss how his latest monster movie feels like a culmination of almost every lesson learned in "The Invisible Man," particularly with its approach to making the title character feel fresh and modern.

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 is back with Wolf Man, a new interpretation of Universal’s classic monster that’s out in theaters today. The horror filmmaker takes a vastly different approach to the werewolf mythos, treating lycanthropy as a disease that yields no shortage of body horror.

Wolf Man doesn’t feature one transformation sequence; instead, it plays out over the course of the film and is handled completely via practical effects. Bloody Disgusting spoke with Whannell about the challenges of making a werewolf movie, tracking the multiple stages of transformation, and the film’s unexpected sources of inspiration.

In Wolf Man, the trouble starts when Blake (Christopher Abbott) travels back to his childhood home with his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth), with a strange creature driving them off the road and leaving them vulnerable to attack. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot “Pierce” and “1941” plastered across Blake’s moving rental truck,...

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.

This article contains mild spoilers for "Wolf Man."

The centerpiece of any werewolf movie is its transformation sequence. Starting with George Waggner's "The Wolf Man" in 1941, witnessing a human being turn into a hairy, wolf-like beast has attracted horror nuts in droves. In "The Wolf Man," Lon Chaney, Jr. sat still in a chair for a static shot of his face. Then the film's brilliant makeup technicians would add a small layer of makeup and hair, and Chaney would be shot again. Several shots were layered together using clever cross-fading, giving the impression that he was transforming. It looks awesome to this day.

1981 was also a banner year for werewolf transformation, as it saw the release of Joe Dante's "The Howling" and John Landis' "An American Werewolf in London." Both of those films made extensive use of makeup, puppetry, models, and rubber creature heads to create some truly terrifying werewolf transformations.

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...

2025 had a strong start with an interesting variety of movies released in theaters, and these, along with some of the biggest hits from the final weeks of 2024, are now in theaters. 2024 saw some big hits on the big screen from different genres and was an overall successful year for the film industry, with movies like the comedy The Fall Guy, the drama Challengers, horror with Late Night With The Devil and Longlegs, the sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and the long-awaited Gladiator II.

The first days of January brought the horror movie The Damned, a one-of-a-kind musical biographical movie with Better Man, and the sequel Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. Now joining them and more is a new version of a horror classic directed by Leigh Whannell and a buddy movie starring Keke Palmer and Sza.

Related 30 Best Movies On Netflix Right Now (January 2025)

From Godzilla Minus One to Under Paris and The Gentlemen,...

Spoilers for "Wolf Man" follow.

Stories of part-animal/part-human creatures go back to the dawn of humanity. One might immediately think of the beastly, hairy Enkidu, the rival-turned-friend of King Gilgamesh in the ancient Mesopotamian epic. When it comes to werewolves, however, our modern perceptions of the creatures come directly from Hollywood. The first major werewolf movie was Stuart Walker's 1935 horror flick "Werewolf of London," and it introduced a lot of what a modern pop audience associates with Wolf Men. The protagonist of "London" was a British botanist named Dr. Glendon (Henry Hull) who discovered a rare, moon-blooming planet in the hills of Tibet ... right when he was bitten by a mysterious beast creature. 

Back in London, Dr. Glendon makes a series of discoveries. For one, he learns that werewolves are real. He also finds that they transform around the time of a full moon. The plant he discovered is an antidote,...

This article contains full spoilers for "Wolf Man."

From a certain perspective, the entire artistic history of humanity has emerged out of human beings' efforts to try and process the unknowable and unchangeable laws of Nature. Unlike most known intelligent forms of life in the world, we have been gifted powers of reason, philosophy, and imagination to go along with our emotions and desires. We use these powers to, in effect, try and translate the world around us, not to mention trying to decode our fellow humans themselves. During periods when our species was less evolved and less cultured, there was a larger belief in superstition, with myths and stories about fictional beings, curses, and other magical elements serving as explanations for why certain things occurred and why people behaved the way they did. As humanity has progressed, we've reached new levels of understanding through not just scientific and technical...

Leigh Whannell is back in Universal’s world of classic monsters. Following 2020’s The Invisible Man, the filmmaker returns with Wolf Man, a new, modern take on the 1941 Gothic horror. It follows Blake, a family man whose marriage to journalist Charlotte (Julia Garner) has hit a rough patch, his career on pause while he takes on the role of stay-at-home dad to their young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). After receiving notice that his long-missing father has been declared officially deceased, Blake and family head to his childhood home, a remote farm in the forests of Oregon, to pack up the deceased patriarch’s belongings. Upon arrival, they’re attacked by a mysterious creature – and soon, Blake himself begins to transform.

What made Whannell’s The Invisible Man so effective was the perfect pairing of monster and metaphor – the crazy-making experience of a man who can only be sensed, not seen,...

Alright, now it’s feeling a bit more like January. I’m not referring to the frigid temps and formidable snowbanks. No, I’m talking about seasonal movie releases, since the first month of the new year is generally the time for horror flicks…of varying quality (often seen as a “dumping ground”). Mind you, for every M3GAN there are a couple of Night SWIMs. Well, now one of the major studios (and a rising upstart production house) join forces to put a new spin on a ninety-year-old classic cinema creature. Yes, it’s the newest collaboration between Blumhouse and Universal (whose “fright fests” began a century ago). Oh, this is not an attempt to “jumpstart” their proposed “Dark Universe” concept (Dr. Frankenstein couldn’t revive it with any amount of lightning after that Tom Cruise reboot of The Mummy). They’ve tossed the idea of a shared continuity...

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...

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...

What to watch this weekend: January 17(Photo Credit – YouTube)

This week’s theatrical lineup features six exciting films. On the Ott front, Prime Video offers a much-anticipated second season of a series that originally premiered in 2020. Lionsgate introduces a new chapter in a popular horror franchise, while Netflix brings three fresh entries, including a documentary about a renowned Bollywood family.

There’s much more to explore; scroll down for the full list. We at Koimoi wish our readers a joyful and prosperous Makar Sankranti.

Prime Video

Paatal Lok season 2 (Hindi)

Release Date: January 17, 2025

Season 2 of the crime investigation thriller starring Jaideep Ahlawat is coming. This time, our protagonist delves into the murder of the founder of the Nagaland Democratic Forum. As the investigation unfolds, he uncovers a dark web of drug syndicates, migrant worker disappearances, and the many complexities that lie beneath.

Lionsgate play

Hellboy: The Crooked Man (English)

Release...

Christopher Abbott was the first actor that Leigh Whannell spoke to for the titular role in Wolf Man, and while the project changed hands for a period of time, the universe brought the star and filmmaker back together in the end.

In Whannell’s long-awaited follow-up to his widely acclaimed The Invisible Man (2020), Abbott plays Blake Lovell, a writer turned stay-at-home girl dad, who, in a bid to save his marriage, convinces his journalist wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), to temporarily relocate from San Francisco to his childhood home in rural Oregon. Charlotte reluctantly agrees to the change of scenery, but just as soon as their moving truck arrives in the remote area, the Lovell family is attacked by something.

From there, Blake discovers a wound on his arm, and he quickly begins to degenerate in heartbreaking fashion, mirroring the experience of losing a loved one to a sudden (or yearslong) terminal illness.

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 Rotten Tomatoes score has been revealed for Wolf Man. Wolf Man is the latest film from Leigh Whannell, who previously directed the 2020 remake of The Invisible Man. Wolf Man is a remake of the 1941 film of the same name, telling the the story of a family who is attacked by an animal in a remote farmhouse, only to discover that their father is now transforming into a mysterious being overnight. Wolf Man features a leading cast including Julia Garner, Christopher Abbott, Matilda Firth, and Sam Jaeger. It is set for release on January 17.

Now, the Rotten Tomatoes score has been revealed for Wolf Man. At the time of writing, Wolf Man has a 59% Tomatometer with 54 reviews.

More to come...

Source: Rotten Tomatoes...

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’s unfocused follow-up to The Invisible Man is a howling disappointment, misjudged and dull

Horror virtuoso Leigh Whannell, screenwriter of the original Saw and writer-director of The Invisible Man, gets into an awful mess with this fundamentally muddled and unsatisfying attempt at reviving the Wolf Man from Universal Studios’ monster stable as part of a possible integrated franchise series – the first since Benicio Del Toro found the cheek whiskers and lupine dodgy teeth sprouting at the first touch of moonlight back in 2010. There’s an excellent opening prologue sequence and a very smart final shot – but everything between is silly, misjudged and dull with dud storytelling, middling prosthetics and wide-eyed “I’m scared” reaction acting that will have you checking the time on your phone.

Christopher Abbott plays Blake, a failed writer and successful dad and househusband, living in New York with adorable daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) and...

Writer/Director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man, like 2020’s The Invisible Man, bears little resemblance to the Universal Monsters movie upon which it’s loosely based. Though it similarly centers on a man who returns to his ancestral home only to find himself grappling with a bizarre affliction after an equally strange animal attack, an inciting scene set in a rental truck bearing the name of Universal’s legendary makeup artist Jack Pierce and the year 1941, The Wolf Man‘s release year, serves as an early torch-passing signal not to expect a retread here.

Instead, Leigh Whannell reinterprets the horror classic from a modern lens, decimating all of the cinematic werewolf rules in the process. That alone makes Whannell’s interpretation of the Wolf Man mythos an ambitious yet polarizing effort.

The reluctant Wolf Man in this story is Blake, introduced as a doting stay-at-home dad to young Ginger (Matlida...

When we look back on this period of Hollywood movies and decide which reboots and remakes actually deserve to come with us, Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man should be among them. After Universal's attempted cinematic universe was Doa, the 2020 horror film showed the classic monsters had more to offer than brand recognition by finding something about the 1933 original that spoke to today and mining it for well-executed scares. I remember it as the kind of movie I was telling friends they had to see as soon as I left the theater.

Wolf Man, released on January 15, 2025, follows Blake and his wife Charlotte as they visit his secluded childhood home in rural Oregon. After a mysterious animal attack, they become trapped inside, and Charlotte is forced to confront Blake's disturbing transformation amidst growing tension and fear.

Release Date January 15, 2025Rating RRuntime 103 minutesGenres Thriller, HorrorFranchise(s) Universal MonstersCast Beatriz Romilly,...

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,...