Wolf Man

I really enjoyed Leigh Whannell's fresh take on a classic monster in The Invisible Man so I was eager to see his interpretation of another one in Wolf Man.  I saw it last night and, even though it is not as good as the previous movie, I thought it was pretty solid (I jumped a foot out of my seat during one particular scene).  When a hiker goes missing in the remote mountains of Oregon it is believed that he was attacked and infected by an animal so Grady Lovell (Sam Jaeger) goes to extreme measures to keep his young son Blake (Zac Chandler) safe from a mysterious humanoid figure he sees in the forest.  Thirty years later, Grady is declared legally dead after also disappearing in the forest so Blake (Christopher Abbott), who now lives in San Francisco with his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth), returns to Oregon with his family to clear out his house.  While driving through the forest, a creature forces them off the road and scratches Blake's arm but the three of them are able to make it to Grady's isolated house and barricade themselves inside.  Charlotte and Ginger are terrified of the monster outside but they soon realize that Blake might be a bigger threat.  There is a heavy-handed message about becoming so afraid that the ones you love will be hurt that you actually become what hurts them (it is reiterated so many times) but I like how it plays out in the resolution.  The light and sound design is very atmospheric, especially the distortion that occurs when the POV shifts back and forth between Blake and Charlotte as he transforms, and the creature design is incredibly unsettling even if it doesn't resemble a traditional werewolf or incorporate any of the mythology.  There are some effective jump scares and Whannell does a good job building tension (a scene involving the creature's breath is absolutely spine-tingling) but the big twist in the narrative is pretty much telegraphed from the opening sequence and is somewhat underwhelming.  Finally, Abbott and Garner give great performances individually but they lack chemistry together.  There are definitely issues but I enjoyed seeing a different approach to a well-known character and I would recommend this.