Wolf Man (2025) | Film Review

Wolf Man follows Blake, Charlotte, and their daughter Ginger (Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth) as they return to Blake’s father’s farm in the mountains of Oregon after he’s declared dead years after going missing. Blake and Charlotte are struggling and decide time at the rural farm might be a way to reconnect.

Blake and his father had a strained relationship and became distant, which is vaguely explained in the opening section as his father saves him from a hunt where they became the prey. Almost immediately upon Blake’s return, an animal attack leaves him mauled and forces the family into an all-night survival game with a monster lurking outside. While certain death lurks outside, Charlotte is contending with another terror inside the house as Blake’s grotesque skin infection is spreading, and that leads to, well, you know. Fangs and such.

Director and writer – along with Corbett Tuck – Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man, Upgrade, Saw) has a penchant for redefining horror and Wolf Man is no exception. This is not the gory sexualized hell of The Howling, nor the comedically masterful An American Werewolf in London. Instead, this fresh take on the werewolf mythos tries to tell the story in a much more straightforward manner, taking place over the course of one extremely long night, as one unprepared family contends with nightmares on either side of their door.

The tension is earned here. Less tacky jump scares and more by the growing sense of dread as Charlotte, in particular, realizes there are far more terrible choices ahead than how to escape the beast outside. Christopher Abbott seizes the lead for the first half of the film, and delivers as a devoted dad desperate to repair the only familial relationship he has left, as well as the struggles with his metamorphosis.

Julia Garner is one of the strongest actors of her generation, and for the first half of the film is relegated to a background role. But as Wolf Man progresses, Charlotte emerges as the second half’s lead, taking charge and articulating a plan amidst an environment she is woefully unprepared for. Thankfully, Garner retains the credibility of Charlotte’s emergence, and rather than a fist-pumping transformation to a werewolf-killing Terminator, Charlotte makes practical, sensible decisions in order to keep her family safe.

The creature designs are unique, and frankly that might put some people off. Werewolves have carried the same “bloodthirsty wolf on two-legs” approach for eons, and it is obvious Whannell and Blumhouse wanted their own spin. Personally, I appreciated this more “human with a severely accelerated physical condition” over the standard werewolf designs we see. Most importantly, these are mostly practical effects, which makes all the difference in the world for a film like this.

Also, Whannell puts us directly in the werewolf’s claws for once, as we see how painful it is for Blake while this transformation takes place. Losing his senses and his family as well as regaining others, this is a very imaginative take on a story we’ve seen a thousand times over. Feeling the emergence of the beast over the man, of animalistic tendencies over human ones, is fascinating to watch unfold.

My only real complaints are that I wanted a truly vicious and visible attack to show the full potential of this iteration of the beast, and that it is frankly ludicrous that Blake’s dad – a hunter – did not have a cache of guns in his house. That said, this is more thriller than horror movie. With standout performances from all of the leads and an original take, Wolf Man might not be for every fan of the genre, but it definitely scratched my lycanthropic itch.