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Wolf Man - Review

Updated: Jan 27

Wolf Man (2025): A Howling Good Time… Until It Loses Its Bite.



Ah, Wolf Man. A movie that starts with breathtaking shots of nature’s majesty—misty mountains, rolling rivers, trees whispering secrets of ancient curses—only to then remind us that life is cruel, death is easy, and parenting is apparently harder than lycanthropy. Real uplifting stuff.


Right out the gate, we meet Blake Lovell, played by Christopher Abbott (who, let’s be honest, has the permanently haunted look of a man who just found out his internet history is being subpoenaed). He’s a struggling writer with daddy issues. After inheriting his missing father’s old stomping grounds, he drags his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner, doing her best “stressed career woman who doesn’t have time for this supernatural nonsense” impression) and their daughter Ginger to a creepy rural cabin because, hey, why not tempt fate?


Wolf Man 2025 movie review, man wife and child are running toward a home at night.
When being hunted by a supernatural nightmare, the best move is always to barricade yourself inside the creepiest building possible.

Naturally, the moment they settle in, things get... hairy. (Come on, you knew that pun was coming.) There’s an unseen menace in the woods, some vague folklore about an ancient sickness, and before long, Blake starts waking up with an unhealthy appetite for raw meat and a newfound appreciation for the nightlife.


Now, let’s get one thing straight— Director Leigh Whannell knows how to craft suspense. The dude made The Invisible Man terrifying, so of course he squeezes every ounce of tension out of a rustling bush, a fogged-up windshield, or a greenhouse roof. There’s an art to making a horror set piece work, and Whannell plays the hits: silhouettes in the dark, eerie sound design, transformation sequences that’ll make your skin crawl (literally, in Blake’s case). The body horror influences here scream Cronenberg Lite, and that’s not a bad thing.

But then… well, then there’s the script.


See, Wolf Man acts like it wants to say something profound—about fathers and sons, inherited trauma, the primal urges lurking beneath civilized society—but in reality, it just howls at the moon without much to back it up. All that heavy-handed setup about Blake’s domineering father and his own anxieties about fatherhood? It goes absolutely nowhere. The movie spends so much time setting up its themes that when the horror takes over, it ditches them like an inconvenient subplot from a Fast & Furious sequel. The result? A character arc that feels about as developed as a werewolf’s tax returns.


Abbott does what he can with the role, but Blake’s transformation feels more like a plot necessity than an emotional gut punch. Julia Garner, meanwhile, is given the thankless task of playing "The Wife Who Must React To Things", which she does with admirable patience, but her character is ultimately as thin as the mist rolling through those scenic Oregon forests. And don’t even get me started on the werewolf design. Less fur, more humanoid features? Look, I get the whole “evolution of the monster” angle, but when your lycanthrope looks like it could pass as a Star Trek background extra, you’ve got problems.


When the full moon rises, family vacations get a little hairy.

And then there’s the lighting—or rather, the lack of it. The final act of this movie is so dark, it makes Game of Thrones’ Battle of Winterfell look like a Pixar film. It’s an artistic choice, sure, but when I have to squint harder than my grandpa trying to read fine print on a contract, we have an issue. At one point, I straight-up missed a jump scare. Not because I was distracted, but because it happened somewhere in the cinematic abyss of pitch-black nothingness. Who knew werewolves were afraid of proper exposure settings?


In the end, Wolf Man is a stylishly crafted, tension-filled horror flick that howls with potential but ultimately whimpers when it comes to depth. Leigh Whannell delivers on atmosphere, gnarly transformations, and nerve-shredding suspense, but the film’s half-baked themes and murky final act keep it from becoming a true classic. Abbott gives it his all, but when your werewolf drama lacks bite and emotional claws, you’re left with a monster movie that’s more "hmm" than "howl." Still, if you’re here for eerie vibes, unsettling body horror, and some good old-fashioned creature feature fun, it’s worth a watch—just don’t expect to walk away emotionally transformed.


Wolf Man - 6/10

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