Courtesy of Common Footage/Blumhouse
No matter occurred to creating monster movies slightly extra cartoonish? That’s the thought that crossed my thoughts watching Leigh Whannell’s lackluster rehash of “Wolf Man.”
Whannell, who beforehand impressed with the a lot grittier (and much superior) “The Invisible Man,” demonstrated his knack for recent spins on acquainted tropes. In that movie, he tackled poisonous masculinity by way of the lens of a girl abused by her husband. It is clear from the beginning that he goals to discover related themes in “Wolf Man,” however this time underneath the guise of a father slowly remodeling right into a ravenous beast.
For some time, the movie has some pulse—significantly throughout an exciting crash sequence early on—nevertheless it quickly falters because it pivots to tacky dialogue, clumsy prosthetics, and a very self-indulgent tone. It’s a shock, particularly contemplating the gifted solid Whannell has assembled, together with Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, who play Blake and Charlotte, a married couple on the point of collapse.
When Blake receives information that his father (Sam Jaeger) has been declared useless (this after a gap sequence reveals that thirty years earlier, he disappeared whereas chasing an unseen animal within the woods), he decides to settle the property within the distant Oregon wilderness—the bitter, merciless place the place he grew up—bringing alongside his household, together with his younger daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth). What was supposed as an try to restore the household dynamic shortly devolves right into a nightmare and when the trio is attacked by a creature, they’re compelled to take refuge in Blake’s father’s remoted dwelling, the place a tense cat-and-mouse standoff ensues.
Because the story progresses, Blake begins exhibiting some main pink flags—tooth falling out, blood blisters, and the emergence of fangs—indicating he could have been contaminated. The remoted setting and small solid present the right environment for the normally thrifty Blumhouse manufacturing firm, and, credit score the place it’s due, among the sensible results evoke a enjoyable, Nineteen Eighties aesthetic, paying homage to these made-for-TV “monster of the week” reveals. And regardless of the movie not fairly reaching the heights it aspires to, the theme of a person doing something to guard his household affords a refreshing change of tempo for a studio-backed horror film.
Abbott, so compelling in smaller-scale indies like “Sanctuary” and “On the Rely of Three,” feels considerably miscast because the loving father determine grappling together with his new inside demon. And “Wolf Man” doesn’t supply the identical star automobile for Julia Garner (“Ozark”) as “The Invisible Man” did for Elisabeth Moss. Whereas Garner has actually confirmed her performing chops, the script (co-written by Corbett Tuck) takes itself too significantly, and her chemistry with Abbott doesn’t spark.
The movie additionally disappoints by robbing us of a very nice wolf transformation. Keep in mind how excruciatingly tense and nerve-racking the transformation scene in “An American Werewolf in London” was? As a substitute, Whannell opts for a slow-burn method, peeling again the layers of this creature over the course of practically two hours, by no means fairly permitting the stress to construct earlier than revealing the monster’s look. And when it’s lastly proven, it’s underwhelming.
The one occasion the place the movie embraces its campy aspect—after we see Blake’s transformation into the wolf-man by way of his personal eyes, and it’s offered like an AI enhanced acid journey—shows faint glimmers of a movie that understands how ridiculous it ought to truly be.
Sadly, such moments are few and much between, leaving audiences with yet one more disappointing reboot, one which half-heartedly weaves in a metaphor concerning the risks males pose to ladies and youngsters. We get it. However can we not less than see some monsters preventing and fooling around, please?
WOLF MAN is now taking part in in theaters.