Wolf Man (2025) Dir: Leigh Whannell

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In 2024, I watched the 1941 black and white horror classic; 'The Wolf Man', and, seemingly immediately afterwards, I found out that there was to be a remake coming out in 2025. This was that remake; a modernised version, directed by Leigh Whannell, which seemed to take mere inspiration from the original, rather than being a shot-for-shot remake. Since its release, reviews have been extremely mediocre, but since I love horror and it was cheap to rent, I thought it was worth giving it a go.

The film looked pretty mediocre, for the most part. I really did not care for the wolf man's perspective visuals - they looked very shoddy. I also wasn't a big fan of the character design of the wolf man. It looked too much like an orc from the 'Lord of the Rings' and not enough like a wolf. I enjoyed the practical effects, particularly the hair and make-up, but thought that the CGI was substandard.

I will give credit where it's due, however. I thought that some of the scenes were legitimately very tense, especially the opening scene, which I thought was actually pretty suspenseful. Not every scene was this effective, unfortunately, but it wad a pleasant surprise just how much of this film I enjoyed. The narrative was very basic and a little repetitive, but it was watchable. The screenplay was pretty horrendous, particularly in regards to the dialogue, but I felt like I was able to ignore it, for the most part.

Christopher Abbott's leading performance had some solid moments, but was hampered by a combination of very poor writing and the frustrating hair and make-up design for his character throughout his transformation. Julia Garner stood out the most of those who prominently featured. I thought that her fear reactions in particular felt quite believable. The young Matilda Firth did an acceptable job with her supporting role, but didn't shine too brightly, although, she too was hindered by the screenplay. I'll also briefly mention Sam Jaeger for his brief but fairly memorable performance, which featured some very solid acting early on.

Overall, I found myself surprisingly enjoying this film a good deal more than I thought I might. It may not be a stellar film, by any stretch of the imagination, but it managed to build suspense well enough to keep me engaged, even in spite of some abysmal writing and underwhelming body horror. In an ideal world, this film would have gone so much further than it did, and would have had a much stronger emotional heart. Regardless, colour me pleasantly surprised by this film, on the whole.