With her 2024 movie “The Substance,” filmmaker Coralie Fargeat took body horror to new and terrifying (some may say nauseating) heights.
You might expect that “Wolf Man” (Universal), directed by Leigh Whannel (of 2020’s “The Invisible Man” fame), would deliver something similar. However, the transformation falls somewhere between Lon Chaney (1941’s “The Wolf Man”) and hot David Naughton in (1981's “American Werewolf in London”). Could it be that Whannel blew his wad with “The Invisible Man?”
In an extended opening segment, we are shown the dysfunctional relationship between young Blake (Zac Chandler) and his off-the-grid/hunter father Grady (Sam Jaeger) in rural Oregon in 1995. We are also told of the myth of a missing hiker who may have contracted Hill Fever, thus developing something called “Face of the Wolf.” After a close encounter with a mysterious and deadly creature in the woods, they return safely home, where Blake overhears Grady on the CB talking about their experience.
Thirty years later, Blake (Christopher Abbott) is a stay-at-home San Francisco dad raising daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth), while his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) is a high-profile journalist. Blake lost contact with his father years before, but when an envelope from a lawyer arrives, he is informed that Grady, long missing, has been declared legally dead and that he has inherited his farmhouse.
Blake convinces Charlotte that it would be good for their troubled marriage to go to Oregon with Ginger. So, they hit the road in a moving truck, presumably to pack up some of Grady’s belongings. But disaster awaits!
First, there’s the uncomfortable reunion between Blake and former Oregon neighbor Derek (Benedict Hardie). Then, swerving to avoid something unidentified in the road, Blake crashes the truck, which lands on its side. While trying to get out safely, Blake is attacked by something that gouges his arm.
It's all downhill from there. In what turns out to be the longest night of these characters’ lives (as well as the audience’s), they are relentlessly stalked by this killer being. To add insult to life-threatening injury, Blake is undergoing a terrifying alteration.
So dimly lit that it is often difficult to make out the action, “Wolf Man” may cause viewers to howl with (unintentional) laughter. The occasional body horror scenes, including the one in which Blake scratches and then ravenously gnaws on his arm, are downright comical. Abbott and Garner are thoroughly wasted, as is the time of the audience. Honestly, I never thought I’d miss Maria Ouspenskaya so much. Beware of this wolf, man.
Rating: D-
