‘Wolf Man’ review: A frightening look at generational trauma through a classic monster movie lens
4.5/5 transformations
Bringing back the Universal Monsters isn’t easy. But Leigh Whannell has done it again with his take on Wolf Man. Based on the 1941 film, we are thrown into the depths of childhood trauma in the woods of Oregon with a script from both Whannell and Corbett Tuck.
Blake (Chris Abbott) finds out that his father is dead and he has to go and get all of the belongings out of his childhood home. Sitting isolated from society in the mountains of Oregon, the home is surrounded by woods that Blake knows well. He also knows what not to do with the woods because of stories he heard as a child. One being that of the Wolf Man.
The opening of the film begins with a native legend of a man who becomes a wolf and it sets the tone for the film’s feel. The Pacific North West does have many legends surrounding it, think The Goonies and how each of those boys thought about their home. But starting Wolf Man with the clear distinction of actual legend mixed with the Universal Monster legacy is one that left me on the edge of my seat.
Blake brings his family, his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) with him but find themselves running for their lives after Blake crashes their U-Haul. As the story goes, one fated encounter with another leaves Blake transforming into a wolf-like state. No, it isn’t the beloved werewolf lore we’ve come to know but rather Blake is completely made new into his wolf persona.
It has all the classic beats and thrills of a monster movie but what makes Whannell’s Wolf Man stand apart is its look into generational trauma through Blake.
Changing yourself for your children
The film begins with a younger Blake and his father in the same woods. When Blake runs off, he seems as if he’s being hunted. It leads to Blake’s father yelling at him, criticizing him, and letting his fear for his son lead him. While as adults we logically understand why Blake’s father is upset with him, he’s using his fear to yell at his child and frighten him.
He doesn’t comfort Blake at any point and we watch how that effects Blake later in life. When Ginger is walking on something dangerous, Blake yells at her but then makes it clear that he loves her. He’s far from person but he tries to be a better father for his daughter than his dad was for him. That thread of breaking generational trauma follows Blake throughout the movie. At every turn, he is willing to put his own pain aside for his daughter.
Abbott does a beautiful job of mixing Blake’s concern for Ginger in with his own pain as he is transforming and it leaves you wanting this family to somehow all be okay despite knowing what Wolf Man is all about.
You’ll want to sink your teeth in
Wolf Man is a great body horror film but it is also so much more. Whannell could have just given us the horror elements, thrown in the one reference back to Saw that is featured prominently in it, and left. Instead, he gave us a story of pain and growth. I’d watch a man become a wolf every day of the week but there is something special within Whannell and Tuck’s script.
Blake isn’t some flawless man, his marriage is falling apart, and he’s unemployed. But all of that leads to him being the most sympathetic of characters as we’re on this journey with him. Charlotte could have left Blake behind at any point but you can still see her love for him in all of her actions. She’s trying, just as Blake was, to keep their family together.
So much of Wolf Man‘s legacy was about the wolf itself but Whannell used our expectations to his advantage and brought us into this story through family, healing, and a desperate need to survive. It is a perfect look at the monster genre and a really great horror movie overall.
Wolf Man is in theaters on January 17.
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