Time: 116 Minutes
Age Rating: R16 – Graphic violence, horror and gore
Cast:
Jason Statham as Levon Cade
David Harbour as Gunny Lefferty
Michael Peña as Joe Garcia
Director: David Ayer

Wolf Man was one of my most anticipated movies of 2025. I loved writer/director Leigh Whannell’s work on The Invisible Man and Upgrade, and his next film would be his take on the Wolfman, and would star Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner. Given his previous success at making a modern take on a horror classic, I was looking forward to seeing what he would do here. I admit however, I was put off after hearing the mixed to negative reactions, and ended up watching the movie much later. I ended up liking it, but it definitely could’ve been better, and I’m not exactly sure what happened here considering the talent in front of and behind the camera.

Wolf Man really feels like it was a film made from a first draft of a script, and certain aspects definitely could’ve been fleshed out more. Leigh Whannell makes some notable changes to differentiate his take from past versions of the Wolfman, like changing the werewolf curse into an infection. He also adds a domestic focus, which brings to mind what he also did with The Invisible Man, only it doesn’t work nearly as well here. There are also attempts at thematic resonance with generational trauma and cycles of abuse. However, Wolf Man manages to be blatant about its allegories yet feel thematically incomplete. In fact, a lot of this movie feels incomplete. Despite the limited cast of characters, they aren’t nearly as developed as they should be. The movie establishes that the main couple have marital problems, but the film doesn’t delve into it and I’m not sure it has much of a payoff. I didn’t even entirely buy the inherited/generational trauma aspect, and I only knew that they were going for it because characters flat out mention it in dialogue. As a result, much of the stuff that happens later on doesn’t feel nearly as powerful or impactful as they should. That aside, Wolf Man does effectively build tension in its first half, but there are some pacing issues throughout, and it can really drag at some points.

Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner are quite good in their parts. Abbott is particularly committed and fully throws himself into the role, it’s a challenging part with everything that happens to his character and I love the physicality that he brought to it. That said, I didn’t buy the chemistry between the two.

Leigh Whannell’s direction is pretty solid, but also flawed in some areas. It makes good use of the forest environment, the sound design is great and helps to create a tense atmosphere, and it also benefits from the score from Benjamin Wallfisch. The effects for the gore and monsters are great too, and it helps that the movie is careful with the number of times we actually get to see the monster. Speaking of which, I didn’t really love the wolfman design, but with the take that Whannell is going for, it works fine enough. The camerawork is a mixed bag, sometimes it really shines, but there are multiple points where it was so dark that I could barely see what was happening on screen. 

Wolf Man is an okay, but disappointing horror film despite some potential, held back by a weak script. It’s elevated by the decent direction and performances. It’s not bad, but definitely not as good as it could’ve been.