PREMISE
An unseen animal attacks a family at a remote farmhouse, but as the night goes on, the father transforms into something unrecognizable.
THE GOOD STUFF
CHRISTOPHER ABBOTT- I’m not saying that Christopher Abbott needs to be mentioned alongside the Bill Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Doug Jones of the world when it comes to actors who truly shine after being marinated in hours of makeup and prosthetics… but he’s on the right track. The trailers already give away the fact that he does turn into the Wolf Man, and it would have made complete sense if he had just played the emotional extremes of the human character and the beastly one. But he does make this Wolf Man extremely sympathetic even when he is at his most Wolf Man-ish. In all honesty, his performance as the Wolf Man may outdo his portrayal of an actual human being. Respectfully.
THE WOLF MAN PERSPECTIVE- I can’t help but admire how this movie wishes to depict werewolfism (if that’s a word). The first werewolf movie, THE WOLF MAN, came out in 1941, and since then, whenever werewolves have been depicted on screen, they all kind of fall into the same tropes. Full moons, silver bullets, shapeshifting, blah blah blah. Werewolves, like vampires or zombies, have been depicted on screen so much that we can call certain things to a tee. I respect that this movie takes the angle of how it depicts changing into a werewolf.
Perhaps the movie’s main goal was to show in detail what the process may feel like internally. It’s a very respectable creative choice and refreshing in its execution. Honestly, that’s the best part of this movie. Keeps things fascinating.
THE BAD STUFF
Surprisingly nothing. Not a lot of jump scare bull****, and the creature design is pretty….meh.
THE UGLY STUFF
Character choices—From now on,, when I review horror movies on this site, I won’t go into detail about how many stupid things horrible characters do just so the audience can see a kill that no other logical human would do in their circumstances.
I keep watching these movies with the hope that I can get through one complete story from front to back without some stupid horror character going into the dark room or running away when they actually have a chance to escape. I have officially given up on that completely. The jump scare in the trailer gives away the scene where the Julia Garner character attempts to jump start a car, in the dead of night, with her kid in the backseat, as the Wolf Man is outside with her. That kind of TYPICAL horror movie stupidity is not as flagrantly displayed as it is in other less enjoyable horror films, but it is noticeable whenever it happens for me, no matter how good the movie is. I just cant help it.
There are at least four instances of this level of stupidity in this movie. It needs to be said. I just want ONE horror movie without stupidity like this throughout its running time. I’m not asking for much, or am I?
**************
By now, we’ve established that there is an upper echelon of horror directors who can sell a movie, no matter who’s in it because they are directing it. Legitimately respected modern-day auteurs heralded in the same fashion that guys like John Carpenter and Sam Remi once were. Leigh Whannell is not one of those dudes. He’s made some pretty entertaining horror films and a couple of… un-entertaining ones. Whannell mostly does conventional things very well. He doesn’t necessarily show any idiosyncratic directorial traits to any of the films he’s done in the genre to the point where his style is instantly identifiable. And that’s okay. He’s competent.
But I do wonder what something like this would be in the hands of somebody with a bit more of a untraditional if not individual style. Competent as Whannell may be, and as hard as he may be trying, we are just at a time when the notable directorial names in the horror genre make everything they do look like Michelin star level food…. And everything else like this kind of looks like McDonald’s. Respectfully.
WOLF MAN is in theaters now
