You hear him howlin’ around your kitchen door
You better not let him in

Leigh Whannell’s newest stab at the Universal Monster realm is steeped with generational trauma, marital woes, and I’m sorry…a really exhausting kid.

As a boy, young Blake Lovell (Zac Chandler) learned everything about survival from his old man, the hard worn and severe Grady (Sam Jaeger) who knows a thing or two about what, or whoever used to be who, lurks in the forest surrounding their remote farm. It’s clear that Grady’s egregious doomsday lifestyle is doing more damage than preparing Blake for the real world. The respect through fear act ain’t jiving and as we flash forward 30 years we learn that some learned habits die very, very hard.

Now nearing 40, Blake (Christopher Abbott) charmingly takes well to the stay at home dad role for his young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth), lightening the load for his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner). The sheer tenderness and bond with his daughter is a polar opposite from Grady’s with a personal game of mind reader upping the awww ante. Blake makes it clear in several ways to his daughter, that she is the most important thing in his world and protecting her is his duty as a good father. Entering the apartment is harried journalist, Charlotte. The air immediately gets tense and room is filled with smiles that don’t meet the eyes.

At dinner, Blake shares that father has died and now he’s got to settle things on the farm he hasn’t been to since he was a boy. No fun for Blake, but it’s great opportunity to spend some time with his family, fixing the strained relationship with his wife, unburdened by her hectic work schedule and to have the bond between Ginger and Charlotte grow stronger.

And away they go!

Spotting something unnatural in the treacherous forest road up to his father’s farm, the Lovell family’s moving van careens perilously into the isolated, woody landscape, and they are not alone. In an effect to save his family from whatever is now hunting them, Blake gets nasty chomp on the arm. On foot, The Lovell’s narrowly make it to safety.

Okay.

Now that you’re up to speed with everything the trailer showed you, my first issue comes with the heavily front loaded family dynamic that seems much more emotionally earnest than deserved. We understand Blake’s willingness to not be anything like his father, which is a great foundation for breaking this cinematic generational curse, but the underdevelopment of Blake and Charlotte’s relationship is a misstep if you want the audience to deeply invest in this family unit during this horrific time.

Onward…

The family is sealed within the farmhouse tightly as Blake begins to experience a deep sickness and here’s where Whannell tears some pages out of the Universal rule book. This transformation doesn’t give us the achingly grotesque displacement of David Naughton’s bones, nor the quick hypertrichosis of Lon Chaney, but that’s sort of its beauty and curse. The transformation excruciatingly takes hours, just enough time for Charlotte to prove she really does love her husband and actually does care about her daughter.

The deep emotional tragedy here is that it means everything in the world to Blake to be a good and protective father and husband and within that space of transition he’s utterly helpless to do just that. The humanity within him blinks in and out before wholly petering out in the third act.

On a practical effects note, it’s gorgeous and gooey and has several moments that made me happily recoil with sheer disgust, and a particular new atmospheric design from the Wolf Man’s perspective is truly genius.

This iteration really tries like hell to pull more heartstrings than horror as we’re left with more of a family drama wearing a horror coat.

Those who can spot a possible foreshadowing device a mile away, look out. For those who love a nice round story with jumpscares and predictability, Wolf Man’s your eh..man.