Warning: This post contains spoilers for Wolf Man.
When writer-director Leigh Whannell’s modern reimagining of The Invisible Man hit theaters in February 2020, the horror-thriller was hailed as a worthy remake that cleverly flipped the script of the 1933 Universal original to serve as an analogy for the perils of gaslighting and domestic abuse.
Wolf Man, now in theaters, marks the latest attempt by Universal to revive one of its classic monster properties for today’s viewers. But while the body-horror-fueled creature feature seems to have a point it wants to make about toxic masculinity and breaking cycles of generational trauma, it struggles to thread the needle of its family-under-siege premise with a cohesive message.
The set-up for a modern take on the story
Opening with a prologue that introduces us to a young Blake Lovell (Zac Chandler as a kid and Christopher Abbott as an adult) and his temperamental, survivalist father Grady (Sam Jaeger), the first 10 minutes of the movie offer us a glimpse into the harsh realities of growing up in an isolated farmhouse in rural Oregon with a parent who is likely to be considered at least somewhat abusive. While out hunting one day, the father-son duo has a brief encounter with the titular animal-human hybrid stalking the forest near their home (a phenomenon that was apparently brought about by a lost hiker contracting some type of mysterious infection). That night, Blake overhears Grady radioing a fellow survivalist to relay his plan to kill the wolf man and protect his son. But, of course, the monster that Blake is truly scared of is his authoritarian father.
(L-R): Matilda Firth as Ginger and Christopher Abbott as Blake in Wolf Man.Nicola Dove—Universal Studios
Thirty years later, Blake is a mostly stay-at-home dad living in San Francisco with his work-focused journalist wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and their young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) when he receives a letter from the state of Oregon stating that a missing Grady, from whom Blake has long been estranged, has officially been declared dead. Fearing that his marriage is on the skids and his family could use a reset, he convinces Charlotte and Ginger they should all spend the summer roughing it together at his childhood home.
The rest of the movie takes place over the course of a single night, as the family’s arrival is derailed by a car accident and subsequent attack by the wolf man, who chases them right up to the door of Grady’s old house and forces them to barricade themselves inside. Unfortunately, Blake is scratched by a claw in the melee and is already doomed by the time they’ve made it to relative safety—even if he doesn’t realize it right away.
Key updates to the 1941 original
Those who have seen director George Waggner’s 1941 The Wolf Man, Universal’s iconic second attempt at a werewolf movie following the commercial flop that was 1935’s Werewolf of London,