It has been said that all monster movies fall into at least one of three categories. Werewolf movies play on the idea that inside every man lives a monster waiting to be unleashed. Vampire movies exploit our collective fear of the unknown, which can include everything from the threat of disease to the perception of strangers as potential predators. The Frankenstein stories explore the dangers when man plays God, creates life and faces the consequences.
Blumhouse’s smart 2020 reboot of Universal horror classic “The Invisible Man” cleverly played off the latter two films, with Elisabeth Moss portraying a woman trying to escape an abusive relationship with a mad scientist. The low-budget thriller, directed by Leigh Whannell, was such a hit that Universal rushed to adapt other titles from its classic monster catalogue, envisioning a “Dark Universe” series that would eventually update—and connect—all of them.
Somewhere along the way, the momentum stalled, and what was initially pitched as a reinvention of “Wolf Man” led by Ryan Gosling, now arrives in a slow, sentimental, and not particularly scary form, starring Christopher Abbott in the lead role. (Whannell took over the helm after Gosling and director Derek Cianfrance left the project.) In different ways, Abbott may actually be a more interesting candidate to play a man grappling with his inner rage, as an actor — drawn to the film’s tortured characters. Twisted projects like “James White,” “Piercing” and “Possessor” — channeling deep wells of rage behind his dark, brooding eyes.
As Blake Lovell in “Wolf Man,” Abbott is a respectable man and devoted father, though he is visibly concerned about the temper that flares up from time to time. At one point, he apologizes to his daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) for scaring her, then immediately comes out and says, “Sometimes when you’re a father, you’re so afraid of your kids getting scarred that you become the one.” And it scares them.” It’s a clever line, and one that’s well-suited to the generation’s more sensitive, self-conscious approach to parenting. However, it expresses so starkly the film’s big idea that it might have been a good idea to let viewers come to that conclusion on their own.
The screenplay, co-branded by Whannell and “Insidious” writer Corbett Tuck, begins with a flashback from Blake’s childhood three decades ago. The boy (played by Zach Chandler, a good match for Abbott) is raised on a sylvan mountain farm by a strict, traumatized father, Grady (Sam Geiger), who takes his son deer hunting in the wolf-infested woods. Grady lectures Blake on the fragility of life, and teaches him tough love survival skills as a way to prolong it. Viewers might reasonably expect these to come in handy later on, though of course Blake is the one destined to become the monster.
If anything, the initial takeaway is that Grady was too harsh, and that Blake is determined to be a better father, which explains his suggestion that the beloved Lovells be moved to his family’s remote home, where his wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), takes over. A person who must think quickly under pressure. This protective instinct doesn’t make for a particularly compelling draw for a major studio horror film (flawed characters tend to be more effective), but it does give the film a tragic dimension that links it back to the cult classic.
In the 1941 original, Lon Chaney Jr. beautifully depicted the suffering of a man cursed, through no fault of his own, to pose a danger to the person he loves. In both films, a selfless attempt to defend others results in a bite or scratch that turns the gentleman into a monster, though the remake compresses that torment into a single night, with the moon taking effect.
On both an intellectual and emotional level, something promising is afoot, and yet, Whannell doesn’t go far enough. While the Invisible Man has audiences gripped from the opening scene, using psychology to enhance the threat, the fate of the relatively slim Wolf Man seems clear and preordained, as this archetypal father faces a terrifying change that turns him against his family.
Whatever its strengths or weaknesses, every werewolf movie is ultimately judged by how well it handles transformations and creature effects, and in that regard, “Wolf Man” is a failure. Whannell opts to go the practical route, using prosthetics and other on-camera devices to simulate Blake’s traumatic mutation, but he errs on the side of realism, as his injured father sweats out a storm before biting off his arm with those sharp new fangs.
Both Abbott and Garner are strong enough actors to keep Blake’s emotional journey real, even if the film has adopted a more fantastical look. Instead, “Wolf Man” attempts to put the audience in Blake’s shoes, even going so far as to shift perspectives between what Charlotte sees (her husband has become bloated and feverish) and Blake’s evolving point of view. That strange, almost infrared “wolf vision” — and the distorted sound that accompanies it — must have been difficult to pull off, but it doesn’t add anything that Abbott’s performance didn’t already convey. If anything, it gives the film a gimmicky, slightly retro quality.
Technically, “Wolf Man” works in the opposite way to “The Invisible Man,” in that any shot could include the eponymous psycho, leaving viewers to scan every frame for signs of him. Meanwhile, “Wolf Man” works best when the monsters are on screen, and because of that, the film’s various werewolves have to look even scarier. This places a heavy burden on sound designers PK Hooker and Will Files, whose intrusive mix of eerie noise is often indistinguishable from Benjamin Wallfisch’s discordant score.
In terms of horror, there’s not much, and it’s almost all revealed through the film’s trailer. Rather than spoil anything further, suffice it to say that “Wolf Man” traps a three-person family unit in a secluded location, where the werewolf tries to make his way inside, while one of them turns inside. The battle between these two monsters is something to behold, but the rest is too long and inescapable, as Blake endures the sad fate of many zombie movies: seeing a loved one turn into danger before your eyes.
Trapped inside the monstrous figure’s head, the Wolf Man wants to say something — perhaps about the fear of inheriting aggression or mental illness from our parents — but ends up making himself pathetic in the process.