A decent movie lacking a meaty bite
Wolf Man is the latest remake of a classic horror icon, this time coming in the form of the werewolf, Wolf Man. Here, we follow Blake and his family as they’re are attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside a farmhouse.
Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear that all is not well with Blake. He seems to be infected and begins to transform into something unrecognizable and monstrous, jeopardizing his wife Charlotte and daughter Ginger’s lives.
All of this is fronted by a beautifully constructed prologue, which really seeps into the moody and atmospheric feel that clings to large stretches of this screenplay. These scenes also do well to depict the core themes as well, which include protecting one’s family no matter what.
Family becomes an incredibly important part of why Wolf Man works so effectively, and the film asks tough questions about exactly what you’d do to protect your loved ones. This eventually crescendos into an emotional and bittersweet conclusion that does reasonably well to close things out.
There are definitely some stand-out elements here, and as mentioned before, the atmosphere and mood does a lot of the heavy lifting.
It helps that the camera work throughout is solid, with excellent directing from Leigh Whannell. For those unaware, this is the same guy responsible for the Saw sequels, The Invisible Man and Upgrade, to name a few. His distinct style can be felt all over this and that’s testament to the film’s visual appeal.
The guy clearly knows how to maximize the intensity in each scene and part of Wolf Man’s allure stems from the monster itself.
Wolf Man does a great job of holding back from pulling the trigger and showing the monster in all its grotesque glory until very late on. This helps fuel the imagination and in many ways, has a lot of similarities to Signs, which adopted a similar mantra.
Unfortunately, the film is not without its flaws, and a lot of that stems from the story and characters themselves. The plot plays out in a very predictable and rigid manner. There are some big cliches thrown in, along with a couple of jump scares that don’t really feel all that necessary.
More than anything else though, the story is screaming for something a little more daring and imaginative, as Wolf Man instead sticks to the tropes of the genre and plays it way too safe as a result.
Of course, with such a small ensemble to play with, it’s difficult to really throw in more bodies to kill or double-down on the gore, but there’s never a time where you truly feel like Charlotte and Ginger are in immediate danger.
Although to be fair this could be the fault of the script, which has both Charlotte and Ginger in roles that aren’t particularly deep or fleshed out. Sure, we know that these guys are family and Blake cares about his wife and daughter, but there’s just not a whole lot of depth to either of them.
Ultimately, Wolf Man is not going to transform the horror genre, nor does it have too much of a meaty bite to make it a mainstay like The Invisible Man or the Saw movies were. Instead, this is a nice little horror flick to kill the time and a decent one to add to the disappointingly limited series of werewolf movies out there.
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Verdict - 6.5/10
6.5/10