Review: Wolf Man (2025)

I think the critics got it wrong on this one.

The 2025 Wolf Man follows the Lovell family (Blake, played by Christopher Abbott; Charlotte, played by Julia Garner; and Ginger, played by Matilda Firth) as they go to Blake's estranged father's home after he is declared legally dead.  However, it t urns out his father is not dead, but now a werewolf who attacks the family, infecting Blake.

This version of the classic tale diverges from other versions by having the turning process be long and painful.  Blake starts to get heightened senses, but then loses the ability to talk or even understand his family.  The metamorphosis is slow, and complicating matters is that the werewolf that infected him continues to hunt the family into the night.

There are undercurrents here of family trauma being passed on to the next generation, as well as less subtextual moments relating to relationships within a family that is strained but not broken.  The slow decline of Blake - treated as an infection given to him - feels pointed in a post-COVID film, and I appreciate director Leigh Whannell twisting the age old myth in such a way.

A film like this is going to live and die on its performances, and with a cast of 5 - two of which are fairly small - there isn't any room for a bad performance.  Thankfully, all of the cast do an amazing job.  Abbott in particular does an amazing job of showing Blake's slow loss of his humanity (it isn't stated, but is implied, that once you transform it is permanent).  Garner, as a mother who worries she doesn't connect with her daughter or husband as she should, also delivers.

Whannell does add some flair to several sequences in the film.  Several chase scenes are fairly inventive - my favorite being one involving a greenhouse - and the decision to cut between Blake's 'werewolf' vision/hearing and that of his family works very well at creating otherworldliness that would be missing in a standard werewolf movie.

This movie also wins points by not being overly long.  An hour and 40ish minutes - including credits - means that we get to the actual meat of the movie fairly quickly, and it doesn't drag at all as the family is trapped/attempts to escape Blake's childhood home.

I will say that this movie is more focuses on the psychological and body horror rather than on jump scares.  I think it is the correct choice for the story that Whannell and co-screenwriter Corbett Tuck want to tell, but for those looking for more traditional scares, this won't scratch that itch.  However, I'd definitely recommend it to those who don't mind a different type of horror.

8 out of 10.