‘Wolf Man’ Is A Fever Dream Horror Flick

Twenty-one years after the release of Saw and nearly five years since the release of The Invisible Man, Australian filmmaker Leigh Whannell returns with a new horror flick, Wolf Man. Led by Christopher Abbott (Sanctuary) and Julia Garner (The Royal Hotel), this creature feature isn’t just a new addition to the post-modern Universal Monsters catalog. To an extent, it’s also a surreal, self-destructive, out-of-body horror film. It’s a window into what it means to be a guiding figure to young ones in this day and age.

Whannell co-writes the screenplay with his wife, Corbett Tuck. While I don’t expect Wolf Man to be groundbreaking, it contains decent surprises in a possibly conventionally “basic” narrative. The film follows patriarch Blake Lovell (Abbott) as he takes his wife Charlotte (Garner) and their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) back to Blake’s childhood home in rural Central Oregon after the government-declared death of his father, Grady (Sam Jaeger, Ben Prendergast). Produced by Blumhouse, the synopsis can be simplified and summed up by that much.

Werewolves in Whannell and Tuck’s Wolf Man

The horror film doesn’t necessarily follow traditional werewolf folklore. Don’t expect to understand why the Lovells must wait until morning for their eerie stalker to retreat from where they came. Don’t even expect to know if the moon is in a certain phase of its cycle around the planet. Wolf Man‘s script introduces Blake and Charlotte as writers—the latter currently in journalism. However, this profession is a minor sign of their ability to communicate and express, along with any challenges stemming from that.

As parental figures, Whannell and Tuck develop the leads well. Abbott portrays Blake as a curly-haired Bay Area dad who doesn’t mind that his daughter wants to put lipstick on him. Blake tries to break generational trauma by avoiding the aggression and the berating he experienced at a young age. As an adult, he is also learning to process his emotions, such as happiness and sadness. This type of feat can be challenging for many Americans today. Meanwhile, Charlotte is the opposite; she isn’t the stay-at-home parent that Blake is, so her relationship with Ginger proves a weakness. This tests her when the “wolf man” attacks carry with them worry and helplessness.

The Wolf Pack Within the Wolf “World”

Yet, these personal and professional qualities have trouble molding themselves within the world. It’s difficult to define Blake and Charlotte as people and why the audience should empathize with them as human beings. Wolf Man doesn’t need to exhibit the perpetual dangers of society. With that said, how does living on the West Coast specifically affect this young couple? What exactly are their stakes?

Otherwise, the unnamed “wolf man” world-building is easy to understand here. An animal-borne virus, “hills fever” or “face of the wolf”, has infected locals of Central Oregon. This detail could have led to a pandemic spreading outside of the state. It also could have dealt more with the mysterious mushrooms introduced in the prologue. The internal and external conflicts are so confined to the self and the environment, respectively. Because of this, the movie’s narrative weighs less than Whannell’s prior films.

Production Pieces

With The Invisible Man seemingly being a fresh start to Universal Pictures’ “Dark Universe” in 2020, succeeded by Radio Silence’s Abigail last April, Wolf Man could be the next big hit. Instead, its scratches fester into strengths here and at least one weakness there.

For one thing, music composer Benjamin Wallfisch continues scoring great horror original soundtracks. This OST follows his work on Andy Muschietti’s It: Chapter One, The Invisible Man, and Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues’ Alien: Romulus. He is joined by sound designers/ supervising sound editors, P.K. Hooker (Upgrade, Halloween, Brightburn, The Invisible Man, M3GAN) and Will Files (Cloverfield, Let Me In, Midnight Special, Upgrade, Halloween, The Invisible Man, No One Will Save You, Alien: Romulus). This pair does fantastic work with the title character’s amplified hearing, including the harsh rapping upon the Lovell home’s walls.

The music and sound are accompanied by production designer Ruby Mathers’s rustic set pieces of the Central Oregon woods and the Lovells’ rural estate, and more so by director of photography Stefan Duscio’s (Upgrade, The Invisible Man) cinematography, especially in the imbalance that the wolf man experiences during his transformation from human to subhuman. By comparison, one interesting scene has the camera follow Charlotte as she attempts to radio the outside world for help. I particularly love the shot of Charlotte and Ginger backing away from the living room into the kitchen—a stressful moment as they wait closer to dawn.

The Aesthetic Components

Conversely, the visual effects within the wolf man’s point-of-view are full of light. This would be fine if Wolf Man went the fantastical route a la George Waggner and Curt Siodmak’s 1941 flick, The Wolf Man. However, something about this current iteration wants to lean more on Mike Nichols, Jim Harrison, and Wesley Strick’s 1994 romantic horror film Wolf. Given its tone, it felt as if Whannell wanted these dreamlike sequences to become a lot like Blumhouse’s previously produced horror film, Get Out. Suffice it to say I am not a fan of the visuals. However, I will credit the special effects makeup for giving the creature a new, gruesome appearance.

Final Thoughts on Wolf Man

Whannell and Tuck’s screenplay tends to have its tropes. Of course, characters must avoid driving into animals on the road; of course, there is no cellphone signal in the middle of the woods; and of course, there is a bigger secret behind the Lovell estate than the family realizes. At the end of the…night, this body horror creature feature is more about the environment and our places within the ecosphere.

We are no longer living within the nuclear family era that the 1930s to ’50s are known for. No one is prepared for the socio-politico-economic atmosphere heading into self-destruction. Wolf Man symbolizes the idea that rot eats at itself, that the desire for the better turns into a desire for an absolute, abrupt end. Whannell concludes this movie with a sick Saw reference, which is one satisfying imagery worth tuning in for.

Wolf Man is now playing in theaters.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars