Wolf Man (2025) Spoiler Free Review

It’s not what’s outside that should scare you. Wolf Man is a 2025 American horror film directed by Leigh Whannell, who co-wrote it with Corbett Tuck. It is a reboot of the 1941 classic The Wolf Man and is produced by Blumhouse Productions. The film is set to be released by Universal Pictures on January 17, 2025 in the United States.

Blake and his family are attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside a farmhouse as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable that soon jeopardizes his wife and daughter.

Film synopsis

The cast includes Christopher Abbott as Blake Lovell / Wolf Man, Julia Garner as Charlotte Lovell, Blake’s wife, Matilda Firth as Ginger Lovell, Blake and Charlotte’s daughter, Sam Jaeger as Grady Lovell, Blake’s father, Ben Prendergast, Benedict Hardie, Zac Chandler, Beatriz Romilly, and Milo Cawthorne.

After spending his childhood with his dad in rural Oregon, Blake (Christopher Abbott) now lives in San Francisco with his wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), and their daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth). With his father now declared dead by the state due to his disappearance, Blake has inherited his childhood home in the mountains. Thinking that the change of scenery will benefit his marriage, the family makes their way to the forest, unaware of the danger that awaits them.

Back in 2014, a new film about the Wolfman was announced by Universal as part of their upcoming shared cinematic universe, Dark Universe. However, after The Mummy’s (2017) poor box office performance, the shared universe was cancelled. It wasn’t until 2020, after Whannell’s The Invisible Man’s success, that the studio decided to focus on the classic monsters franchise again and greenlit a reboot of The Wolf Man (1941), with Whannell taking the role of director after Derek Cianfrance left the project in 2023.

But this project does not reflect Whannell’s previous successful work, which includes Saw, Insidious, and Dead Silence. The plot is extremely predictable from the start; the movie doesn’t bother to hide how this story will end. It doesn’t take much to deduce those “small details” that will be important later. The movie opens with a text explaining that in 1995, after the disappearance of a hiker, the locals began to speculate about a “virus” that the indigenous tribes called “the face of the wolf.” This information is not explored, leaving the origin of the “virus” superficial and only showing us the result of infection. This lack of development causes the plot to run in circles and become repetitive, lacking originality or a surprise effect.

The werewolf’s design doesn’t help an already weak plot. Even though we’ve seen several werewolves throughout film and television, this one looks more like a man infected by a zombie-like virus, removing any trace of a terrifying presence. The location and dark forest are the only positive and successful aspects of the film. Even when there are scenes in which it is very difficult to appreciate what is happening on screen, the darkness provides a feeling of confinement and anxiety.

Wolf Man is another ill-fated attempt at bringing classic monsters back to the big screen. With remakes of Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and Creature from the Black Lagoon on the way, we can only hope that these attempts bear fruit.