Wolf Man

Leigh Whannell's The Wolfman is an absolute travesty, a film so bogged down by its own misguided ambition that it dares to insult its audience with every agonizingly slow, dialogue-driven scene. Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, while undoubtedly talented actors, are wasted on a screenplay that reads like a collection of rejected first drafts from a sophomore creative writing course. Whannell's attempt to craft a "thoughtful" horror film comes off as nothing more than pretentious navel-gazing, with long, tedious conversations that add nothing to the plot and suck all momentum out of the narrative.

The werewolf design is a disgrace, looking more like a cheap Halloween costume than a creature of terror. It's baffling how a film in 2025 can fail so miserably at something that movies from the 1940s did with more finesse. Worse still, Whannell has the audacity to forgo any meaningful visual transformation sequence. The transformation-a cornerstone of werewolf lore-is entirely absent, replaced by uninspired sound effects and a lazy cutaway. This omission is not only a colossal disappointment but also a blatant disregard for the source material.

Determined to strip The Wolfman of everything that made the original story iconic... Gone are the thrills, the action, and the horror. In their place, we're subjected to a plodding, self-important drama that's more interested in existential musings than delivering even a shred of excitement. The film feels like an insult to fans of the genre, a condescending lecture masquerading as art.

The pacing is excruciatingly slow, with the film grinding to a halt whenever the characters open their mouths. The dialogue is overwrought and meandering, more suited to a bad stage play than a feature film. Whannell tries to inject tension through strained metaphors and half-baked character studies, but it all comes off as hollow and forced.

I appreciated the simplicity of the story which allowed the directing, atmosphere, cinematography and soundtrack to really be at the forefront in their storytelling.

These elements of the film made a somewhat simple story engaging and beautiful to look at on the big screen. Even for a horror movie I was surprised with the strength of the characters, family bond and overall theme of the film especially with the connection to the prior events in the past.

However, I felt the film could've been a bit more bold, took more risks and try to be inventive. Especially with the director's previous film's "upgrade" and "the invisible man" which took some risks which definitely paid off in some great and memorable moments. I just thought that the conclusion to the film teetered on lacklustre.

However, I was happy that the film did not become too over the top and cheesy in which some horror films that have come out recently have. As stated before, the simplicity of the story allowed us to focus on the characters relationship and the atmospheric setting.

All in all a solid horror film to begin the 2025 campaign however, I think a bolder final act could've made it more memorable.

As a horror girlie, I couldn't resist checking out "Wolf Man" today, and while it had its moments, I'm a bit torn on it.

The cinematography was easily the standout-some of the angles and camera work were fantastic, especially for a horror film. There are also a few fresh ideas that really surprised me, which is impressive for a remake of the 1941 classic.

That said, the child actress's performance kept breaking the immersion for me, and overall, the movie felt a little too safe. It's enjoyable enough, but not particularly memorable. Honestly, it gave me strong novel vibes-this story would've worked so well as a book. It also made me want to replay 'Until Dawn', which captures a similar vibe with way more impact.

"Wolf Man" is worth a watch for horror fans, but it's probably one to wait for on streaming.

From the director of The Invisible Man comes a reboot of yet another Universal Classic Monster, this time offering a modern spin on the studio's lycanthropic franchise. But unlike his impressive last feature, Wolf Man fails to create any sort of intrigue or interest, is formulaic & forgettable in every possible way, and makes for a bland, banal & boring offering with nothing worth investing into.

Co-written & directed by Leigh Whannell (Insidious: Chapter 3 & Upgrade), the premise is paper-thin, characters are poorly sketched & devoid of personality and the plot is predictable from afar with not many (or any) surprises in store. And if that's not enough, the sappy melodrama & lame dialogues don't do the film any favour either. And the ride is furthermore hampered by its lack of suspense.

There is no sense of direction to where the plot is headed, the family unit isn't developed enough and the horror set pieces also lack the expected ferocity & flesh-tearing carnage. Performances are lifeless, and even the werewolf design fails to impress. Whannell intended to address themes of parenting, marriage, sickness & death here but for those to work, the fundamentals needed to be solid which isn't the case here.

Overall, Wolf Man is ineffective in its storytelling, flat in its execution and underdeveloped as a whole. Terribly directed, shoddily scripted, tediously paced & weakly acted, there's nothing that clicks here nor is there anything to latch onto, thus resulting in a finished product that has no bite. An uneven, uninspiring & underwhelming reimagining that's not only devoid of tension & scares but is also lacking in narrative & emotional depth.

A January horror movie. You never quite know what you're going to get. More times than not it's where studios dump their worst of the year. I don't think that's going to be the case with 'Wolf Man' though. It's nothing special, but it's a passable 103 minutes.

The film gets off to a very slow start. There was an intriguing opening scene which I had high hopes for, but it never really went anywhere interesting and was more just an extended way to explain the set up for the film.

From there we are introduced to the characters of the family and I thought this was too drawn out and not done in an interesting way. There were some lengthy dialogue-heavy scenes and it was hard not to check out, because they were just done in such a dull way.

Finally we then get into the meat of the movie. Leigh Whannell is a talented director and there are some well done scenes in here. There is one jump-scare that was very well executed. The problem for me though was it felt very safe. This didn't feel like a horror film where anything could happen at any moment.

'Wolf Man' was filmed in New Zealand so there is some beautiful scenery to look at in a few scenes. It's a well made film but ultimately I think it will be pretty quickly forgotten. 6/10.