A Warwilf?

We weren't that excited about Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man (2025), even though we loved The Invisible Man. The reviews just weren't that good. But with the right set of expectations, this was pretty good.

It starts with a crawl about how a hiker vanished in the woods, possibly due to Hill Fever, possibly what the Native people call "yetiglanchi" or werewolfism. We then meet little Blake, a young boy who lives in a remote house in Oregon with his strict father. He carefully makes his bed, then goes out hunting with his dad. They look out over a beautiful valley, but we see that the dad is pretty protective and maybe has anger issues. When they hear strange noises, they retreat to a blind, and some kind of wild animal menaces them. Dad dismisses it as a bear, but is seen discussing it with a neighbor on CB.

In present day, Blake has grown up, and is now played by Christopher Abbott. He lives in New York with a little daughter that he dotes on, but is a little too protective of - although he is fighting not to be his father. His wife, Julia Garner, is a driven, fashionable journalist, and they aren't getting on too well. 

Then he gets the news that his father, who he hasn't seen since he left hie at eighteen, has been declared dead. He disappeared while hunting several years ago. So he convinces his wife to join him in packing up the old homestead. 

As they approach the place on narrow dirt roads, he gets lost. But they encounter a local, a toothless yokel an old friend of Abbott's, Derek. He offers to take him there, and, even though Garner reacts like he's a serial kiler, Abbott accepts. But a creature appears in front of them on the road, and they run off the road.

With the truck hanging sideways off a cliff, Derek jumps out and is swiftly eaten by a something, and Abbott is scratched pretty badly. But they make it to the house. Abbott goes into hyper-vigilant survivalsit mode, barricading the doors and windows, getting the generator going, finding the CB (no phone, no cell signal), and so on. There don't seem to be any guns, which is surprising. Their absence is not mentioned, but c'mon, there should be a ton of them. I think Derek took them.

As if being stalked by a creature of some sort isn't enough, it looks like Abbott has picked up a touch of Hill Fever. He starts losing teeth and hair, and maybe growing some as well. So as well as a werewolf outside, there will soon be one inside as well. 

So the theme is obviously the effects of trauma across generations. SPOILER - the werewolf that infected Abbott was his father! So Abbott is literally turning into his father. A Little heavy handed?

As well as being a bit heavy-handed on the theme, the movie is pretty slow. Ms. Spenser at least appreciated the limited use of jump scares. But she wasn't too thrilled with the lack of body count and real scares. Neither of us is into body horror, but even if we were, the transformations were not great, and the wolves themselves looked pretty weak. 

But when we experience the world with Abbott's transforming viewpoint, it gets interesting. Everything is brighter, small sounds are more intense - when his wife and daughter are hiding in the dark, from his point of view they are just sitting in a well-lit room. Also, he loses his ability to speak or understand language, so we hear his wife pleading with hum, but it just sounds like mumbo-jumbo. Definitely the best part. 

So I'd rank this as a less work by a low-budget master of horror. But it was still pretty fun. The daughter, Mathilda Firth, was pretty lovable, and Garner as the wife went from spiky and brittle to strong when she needed to be. So, low expectations were met and we were satisfied. Although it did make us want to watch MST3k's Werewolf.