Main cast: Christopher Abbott (Blake Lovell), Julia Garner (Charlotte Lovell), Matilda Firth (Ginger Lovell), Benedict Hardie (Derek Kiel), and Sam Jaeger (Grady Lovell)
Director: Leigh Whannell

Wolf Man is another installment in the Dark Universe series, which is now owned by Blumhouse Productions, following The Invisible Man. Leigh Whannell is in charge of this too, which I’m sure will shock absolutely no one.

Because they are now modernizing the whole Dark Universe, don’t expect some campy throwback to the original Wolf Man from the 1940s. Instead, this one tries very hard to be some character drama, only in the grand tradition of modern cinema, it substitutes exposition for character development and boy, Mr Whannell and friends really want you to know it.

Hence, this movie is about sins of the father and generational trauma along with other heavy-handed family angst. Oh, don’t worry if you blink and miss out on this, as the characters in this movie will belabor the point over and over in a manner that is far from subtle. The movie really wants to be viewed as deep.

So, we have Blake and Caroline Lovell having issues because he has anger management issues. They have a daughter, Ginger.

In the past, Blake’s father Grady went MIA while hunting a mysterious beast in the Oregon wilderness. Now, Grady is pronounced dead, so Blake inherits his father’s cabin. We all know that, in these movies, the best way to resolve family issues to go spend time in a run-down mountain cabin out there in the middle of nowhere, so off the family goes.

The movie wastes no time telling me early on that the “werewolf” curse is actually some kind of infection called “ma’iingan odengwaan” by the local Native American tribes. So, can anyone guess what Grady went hunting ages ago? Also, he has the “Lovell” name tattooed on his arm, so anyone can guess what happened to Grady and how they would realize that the werewolf is Grady at the end?

Oh, don’t tell me that I’ve spoiled the movie. It’s impossible to spoil this movie because it telegraphs the entire movie without any hint of subtlety within the first 15 minutes of the movie. 

So, this movie spends a lot of time having these characters dumping on one another about their trauma, issues, daddy issues, marital issues, et cetera to the point that I wonder whether the whole movie is just one long therapy session. It’s not like there is any resolution, because once the movie moves the family to the Oregon wilderness, it wastes no time becoming another “trapped in the cabin with a werewolf outside” movie with — shocker, I know — Blake already infected.

What happens next? Oh, I’m sure one can never see it coming: Blake turning into his own daddy, ooh. The whole thing ends with the best way to resolving one’s marital issues being just unsubscribing the offending spouse from life.com, so I guess at least there is a take home lesson from the whole predictable by-the-numbers movie.

That’s not me saying that Wolf Man is bad. Oh, it’s watchable, with some lovely scenery and cinematography, and the cast isn’t bad. 

However, I should warn people that the werewolf is… yikes. I know, I know, they are probably aiming to change things up about the werewolf’s transformation process and appearance because this movie is supposed to be “deep” and “modern”, but come on, when the movie is already so formulaic, at least give me a classic scary werewolf. Oh well, this one is more like a hairless angry wombat, so folks expecting a classic werewolf may want to tamper their expectations a bit before watching this movie.

All in all, I’d say that this movie is okay, but it’s also an underwhelming failed attempt at “being different, but not really”. It doesn’t want to commit to being revolutionary or different, instead relying on tired and played out clichés to pad things out. Since it doesn’t offer old-fashioned blood and gore to thrill fans of werewolf movies, it ends up doesn’t have much else to offer. 

File this one under: “Watch it if you want to… but you don’t really have to when there are many better werewolf movies out there.”