Lobisomem

Leigh Whannell's reimagining of The Wolf Man is moderately entertaining. But, ultimately, it falls short of the levels of suspense, creativity and energy achieved in his 2020 remake of The Invisible Man starring Elisabeth Moss and Aldis Hodge. It also pales in comparison to 2010's The Wolf Man directed by Joe Johnston and starring Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and Hugo Weaving.

For starters, the film's script is devoid of nuance, a problem highlighted by instance after instance of unimaginative dialogue that really could have benefited from a punch-up or two prior to principle photography. From start to finish, each character in the movie more or less says exactly what they're feeling. As a result, the viewer is consistently denied the emotional reward derived from dialogue that requires a certain level of maturity and investment in order to connect with what the actors are attempting to convey nonverbally.

Next, Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner lack onscreen chemistry and are not very believable as a married couple. Additionally, the lack of physical resemblance between actor Sam Jaeger and Abbott, who are cast as father and son in this film, is a bit distracting.

The biggest problem related to casting, however, is Garner. She seems out of her depth in this project and is neither convincing nor sympathetic as the story's forlorn wife and mother.

However, child actress Matilda Firth delivers a strong performance that mitigates some of the aforementioned casting issues. Very talented.

On the technical side, the movie's cinematography is rather flat, devoid of light, contrast and vibrance. In all fairness, this is a problem that's been common among a number of horror projects shot in recent years. Even non-horror projects like Gladiator II, directed by a filmmaker known for crafting beautiful, visually dynamic motion pictures, have fallen victim to this current trend of drab lighting. So, no real surprise there.

On another positive note (in addition to Firth's performance), Wolf Man, much like The Invisible Man (2020), features outstanding sound design. The movie's sound does a lot of the heavy lifting during the story's most suspenseful moments. In light of this, the entire sound department deserves an immense amount of credit and recognition for their work on this project.

So, in short, not as good a movie as I'd hoped for, but by no means bad. I'll definitely watch it again at home when it's available.

As a horror girlie, I couldn't resist checking out "Wolf Man" today, and while it had its moments, I'm a bit torn on it.

The cinematography was easily the standout-some of the angles and camera work were fantastic, especially for a horror film. There are also a few fresh ideas that really surprised me, which is impressive for a remake of the 1941 classic.

That said, the child actress's performance kept breaking the immersion for me, and overall, the movie felt a little too safe. It's enjoyable enough, but not particularly memorable. Honestly, it gave me strong novel vibes-this story would've worked so well as a book. It also made me want to replay 'Until Dawn', which captures a similar vibe with way more impact.

"Wolf Man" is worth a watch for horror fans, but it's probably one to wait for on streaming.

"Wolf Man" is the new adaptation of one of Universal's classic monsters, a different look at what "The Wolf Man" (1941) was, is what Leigh Whannell offers in his film directed and written by him, the script touches on folkloric elements of the werewolf myth and mixes them with a family drama, giving a good but not excellent result. Although Whannell had already brought another classic Universal monster in his version of "The Invisible Man" which was somewhat overrated in 2020, in 2025 his version of "Wolf Man" is more interesting than his aforementioned previous film. The performances of Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner are good, managing to portray a marriage in crisis. The cinematography is good, and it uses the werewolf's perspective to show us his visual change from human to animal, as is the sound design, which is incredible and also takes the audience to be part of the protagonist's auditory mutation. The prosthetic makeup special effects are realistic and nostalgic in an old-school way, giving a nice touch to the subgenre that the film touches on, that of body horror. Whannell manages to introduce suspense in several scenes and knows what he wants to show on screen. "Wolf Man" is not a perfect film, and it will certainly not be the best horror film of 2025, but it is an entertaining and well-made cinematic product.

From the director of The Invisible Man comes a reboot of yet another Universal Classic Monster, this time offering a modern spin on the studio's lycanthropic franchise. But unlike his impressive last feature, Wolf Man fails to create any sort of intrigue or interest, is formulaic & forgettable in every possible way, and makes for a bland, banal & boring offering with nothing worth investing into.

Co-written & directed by Leigh Whannell (Insidious: Chapter 3 & Upgrade), the premise is paper-thin, characters are poorly sketched & devoid of personality and the plot is predictable from afar with not many (or any) surprises in store. And if that's not enough, the sappy melodrama & lame dialogues don't do the film any favour either. And the ride is furthermore hampered by its lack of suspense.

There is no sense of direction to where the plot is headed, the family unit isn't developed enough and the horror set pieces also lack the expected ferocity & flesh-tearing carnage. Performances are lifeless, and even the werewolf design fails to impress. Whannell intended to address themes of parenting, marriage, sickness & death here but for those to work, the fundamentals needed to be solid which isn't the case here.

Overall, Wolf Man is ineffective in its storytelling, flat in its execution and underdeveloped as a whole. Terribly directed, shoddily scripted, tediously paced & weakly acted, there's nothing that clicks here nor is there anything to latch onto, thus resulting in a finished product that has no bite. An uneven, uninspiring & underwhelming reimagining that's not only devoid of tension & scares but is also lacking in narrative & emotional depth.

A January horror movie. You never quite know what you're going to get. More times than not it's where studios dump their worst of the year. I don't think that's going to be the case with 'Wolf Man' though. It's nothing special, but it's a passable 103 minutes.

The film gets off to a very slow start. There was an intriguing opening scene which I had high hopes for, but it never really went anywhere interesting and was more just an extended way to explain the set up for the film.

From there we are introduced to the characters of the family and I thought this was too drawn out and not done in an interesting way. There were some lengthy dialogue-heavy scenes and it was hard not to check out, because they were just done in such a dull way.

Finally we then get into the meat of the movie. Leigh Whannell is a talented director and there are some well done scenes in here. There is one jump-scare that was very well executed. The problem for me though was it felt very safe. This didn't feel like a horror film where anything could happen at any moment.

'Wolf Man' was filmed in New Zealand so there is some beautiful scenery to look at in a few scenes. It's a well made film but ultimately I think it will be pretty quickly forgotten. 6/10.