Wolf Man

by Mike McGranaghan

Wolf Man is not a conventional werewolf movie. It is not An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, or the recent Werewolves. Rather than going for the usual fun-scary vibe, director/co-writer Leigh Wannell (The Invisible Man) goes in a different direction altogether. This is the saddest werewolf movie I’ve ever seen, and I mean that as a compliment.

An extended prologue introduces us to Blake Lovell, a young boy whose overly stern father Grady (Sam Jaeger) teaches him how to survive in the woods. As an adult, Blake (Christopher Abbott) gets word that Grady, from whom he’s been long estranged, has died. He needs to pack up all the stuff in his dad’s house, so he heads into the Oregon wilderness with wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). On the way, they’re attacked by a mysterious creature. It scratches Blake, who then begins undergoing a terrifying transformation.

The important thing here is not the creature, it’s Grady. He instilled in Blake a firm belief that a father’s duty is to ensure his family’s safety. That lesson is taken to heart when the creature starts stalking the clan. Blake works to keep Charlotte and Ginger out of harm’s way, a task that becomes harder the more he changes. Thematically, Wolf Man is very much about how the guy determined to protect his wife and child becomes the thing they need to be protected from. That’s a tragic concept, as is the concurrent theme about parental fear of messing up your kids.

Whannell focuses on those ideas, giving his movie a melancholic tone. In a smart move, the werewolves don’t look completely wolf-like. They maintain human features, which are accentuated with lycanthropic touches. That allows us to remember that Blake is very much a human being on the inside, and that the instinct to hunt his own wife and daughter is way worse than developing fangs or growing hair in weird places. Christopher Abbott is excellent in his role, even when buried under latex. The actor keeps emotion in his eyes, guaranteeing we feel his character’s pain at all times.

None of this is to say that Wolf Man is without thrills. The film certainly has them, especially in the final half hour. Several good shocks come during that time, one of which made this devout horror buff squirm. (It involves a bear trap.) Fresh spins are put on old conventions, too, like the car that won’t start when people are trying to escape. Because the visceral tension serves the story’s core ideas, it carries weight beyond the norm.

A minor frustration is the excessively dark cinematography that occasionally makes it difficult to see what’s going on. Also, more could have been done early on to establish the troubles in the Blake/Charlotte marriage to give the finale even greater meaning than it already has. Wolf Man still makes an impact. With Abbott and Garner expertly grounding the horror in something real, this becomes a werewolf movie that might just get you a little choked up by the time its magnificent final shot arrives.

Scroll down for a look at the Blu-ray bonus features.

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Bonus Features:

Wolf Man will be available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 18. The Blu-ray comes with a digital copy of the movie, as well as feature-length audio commentary from director Leigh Wannell. After that are four excellent supplementary features that help you understand how the movie was made – and, in effect, why it’s successful.

Unleashing a New Monster presents Wannell talking about his desire to veer away from the traditional werewolf myth, making Blake’s transformation more like a disease than a curse. Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner also appear to discuss why, as actors, they embraced that challenge.

Designing Wolf Man focuses on the creation of Blake’s look once he turns. Wannell goes into detail about why he wanted to avoid the classic “furry dog” look of onscreen werewolves and go for something that felt a little more realistic. Effects technicians and makeup artists add perspective on achieving the desired impact.

Hands-On Horror offers information about how the stunt scenes were accomplished. Behind-the-scenes footage of the truck escape and the greenhouse attack are especially interesting to watch, as you can see how meticulous the entire endeavor was.

Nightmares and Soundscapes wraps up the package. Here, we learn how sound effects, cinematography, and CGI combined to create the shots that are from the transformed Blake’s point of view. Wannell explains why these moments were integral to achieving the film’s mission.

Together, the bonus features run a little less than half an hour, and they go into lots of enticing detail. Wolf Man is a very good movie whose reputation I suspect will grow over time. With the excellent making-of segments, this Blu-ray release is well worth picking up. Click here to order a copy from Amazon.