Sometimes, you’re so scared of your kids getting scars, you become the thing that scars them.
In “Wolf Man,” Blake (Christopher Abbott) voices this thought to his young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth), drawing upon his experiences growing up in rural Oregon with his own strict father (Sam Jaeger). The quote brings up questions of cycles of violence, of the ways in which parents inadvertently pass their childhood trauma down to their own children, often in the name of protection. Those are apt ideas for a movie like “Wolf Man” to consider, drawing upon base instinct as much as they do human nature. If only the movie could live up to the promise of its premise.
With his last film – 2020’s “The Invisible Man” – writer/director Leigh Whannell turned the classic Universal horror film into one about domestic violence and gaslighting. He takes a similar approach with “Wolf Man,” attempting to update the 1941 film into one with a more modern sensibility. But most thematic throughlines in “Wolf Man” are quickly lost through half-baked characterization and muddled relationship dynamics, and any fun there was to be had is quickly wiped away by a level of tragedy the film never earns.
Read Sammie’s full review on Rough Draft
