In the moonlit realm of werewolf cinema, where primal howls and hairy transformations dominate, Wolf Man (2025) enters the scene with hesitant steps and timid paws, too tame to leave a lasting mark on the genre. It teases with some ferocity, but these sparks fizzle, leaving us clawing at the air for the bone.
Three decades have passed since Blake (Christopher Abbott), now a city-dwelling writer tethered to his urban family, last faced the shadows of his haunted past. The movie opens with young Blake, yanked from sleep by his father for a pre-dawn hunting trip. More than just a father-son bonding experience, Blake's father (Sam Jaeger) is like a drill sergeant with a rifle, hammering home lessons to his son about the importance of situational awareness and keeping his eyes peeled.
Turns out, Dad’s not just paranoid. When Blake spots a furry, fanged silhouette, yep, a werewolf, through his scope, their deer hunt flips into a “run for your life” sprint, proving Dad’s survival tips weren’t just hot air. Unfortunately, Blake’s dad gets sidelined after this opening, leaving us hungry for his backstory about that forest-dwelling beast. He’s the most interesting character in the room, stealing the show in just a few minutes, yet the movie leaves us hanging. Ditching this angle feels like scriptwriting malpractice, if you ask us!
Instead, Wolf Man shifts focus to Blake as a weary adult, along with his devoted wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), and their daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth), as they journey back to the fog-draped wilderness of Oregon to Blake's childhood home. Their mission: to sift through the belongings of Blake’s late father. The movie bares its fangs early, from the opening with Blake's father to Blake and his own family arriving in Oregon and mistakenly taking a detour onto a neighbor’s property. It grabs our attention.
It doesn't take long for the movie's early growl to collapse. When Blake’s curse ignites, the transformation meant to be a skin-shredding, bone-cracking spectacle drags on sluggishly and feels incomplete, ultimately resulting in a "Wolf Man" that looks less like a vicious beast of the night and more like a victim of a tragic fire.
To make matters worse, the cinematography is so dark that it feels like the movie’s Director of Photography forgot to bring the lights, leaving us with werewolf scenes that, instead of drawing us in, become increasingly difficult to navigate. As a result, large chunks of the movie are more frustrating than frightening, since we can barely see what's happening.
Garner's character, Charlotte, fights tooth and nail to anchor the movie, but unfortunately, none of the characters feel all that effective in their roles. It becomes hard to truly resonate with any of them, which, in turn, makes it hard to feel fully invested in their fates. It was better before the infection happened, as we didn’t need a torch to see.
We did enjoy the start. It had potential, even if it never fully delivered. The Wolf Man himself offers a few cool all-fours gallops that give us a quick adrenaline hit, but otherwise, he’s as memorable as a B-movie extra. The movie sleepwalks through its main story, offering no surprises to shake us awake, and is quickly forgotten by breakfast.