Wolf Man (2025) directed by Leigh Whannell, starring Julia Garner

Under normal circumstances this would have strictly been a "wait for streaming" release. But I was itching to see something that wasn't a revival, and I didn't have a NOSFERATU or THE BRUTALIST in me.

It's hard to believe this paint-by-numbers horror outing was conceived by Leigh Whannell, the guy who created and wrote SAW (not my favorite franchise, but at least it had an interesting concept) and was the writer/director behind the decent INVISIBLE MAN adaptation from 2020. (Though, as Ryan pointed out, that film succeeds more because of Elizabeth Moss than anything else.)

Stay-at-home dad Blake, his ambitious/never around journalist wife Charlotte, and their annoying daughter travel to Oregon after Blake’s father is officially declared dead. Seems ex-military, hardcase, loner nut dad has been missing for a while, and they need to go clean out his off-the-grid farm. Did I mention the nearby woods are purported to be home to some kind of manimal that Blake and his dad encountered when he was a kid?

ANYWAY… Blake has gone soft and gets himself bit by said manimal, so Charlotte has to kick into protector role, etc. The plot lurches along to the telegraphed conclusion, occasionally pausing for moments of ridiculous horror movie hilarity, but not the good kind of horror movie hilarity.

As the teenager in the lobby told his friend afterwards, “it was aight, I’d rather been watching MUFASA”. — Dan Taylor