This is where being a former English teacher comes into play. If you’re going to make a werewolf movie, you need spacing and articles. Unless you’re making a wolfman movie, which my friend J Dobbs Rosa would argue is a different beast. Writer/Director Leigh Whannell may be having it both ways with his cinematic creature, a new Blumhouse reimagining of the classic Universal Horror film (and franchise).
This one looks halfway in between. Not as four-legged as David Naughton in An American Werewolf in London, but not quite as upright as Lon Chaney, Jr. in The Wolf Man. To this day, I have not seen Benicio Del Toro as The Wolfman, but that may have to change. Whannell has left off the article for this one, as his version coming out January 17 is called, simply, Wolf Man.
From Blumhouse:
What if someone you loved became something else?
From Blumhouse and visionary writer-director Leigh Whannell, the creators of the chilling modern monster tale The Invisible Man, comes a terrifying new lupine nightmare: Wolf Man.
Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott (Poor Things, It Comes at Night) stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Emmy winner Julia Garner; Ozark, Inventing Anna), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth; Hullraisers, Coma).
But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.
The film co-stars Sam Jaeger (The Handmaid’s Tale), Ben Prendergast (The Sojourn Audio Drama) and Benedict Hardie (The Invisible Man).
Wolf Man is directed by Whannell, whose previous films with Blumhouse include The Invisible Man, Upgrade and Insidious: Chapter 3. The screenplay is written by Leigh Whannell & Corbett Tuck, Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo (Dumb Money).
The film is produced by Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum and is executive produced by Ryan Gosling, Ken Kao, Bea Sequeira, Mel Turner and Leigh Whannell. Wolf Man is a Blumhouse and Motel Movies production.
Genre: Thriller
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, Sam Jaeger
Written by: Leigh Whannell & Corbett Tuck, Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo
Directed by: Leigh Whannell
Producer: Jason Blum
Executive Producers: Ryan Gosling, Ken Kao, Bea Sequeira, Mel Turner, Leigh Whannell
I’ll take issue with calling this a “Thriller,” when once you have a supernatural creature ripping people apart, we’re safely in horror territory. What’s truly fascinating here is that Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios debuted the first peek and it didn’t look good. But there’s also nothing in this trailer that resembles this creature:
Since I kind of loved Whannell’s take on The Invisible Man, he’s earned the right to be seen here. At the very least, through Blumhouse Universal Studios is stumbling toward a potential Dark Universe (finally) without planning it. Could Abigail fight a wolf man? Why not? But let’s leave that to the fanfic.
