The icon is in the building. Wolf Man is an original and with other originals that have come out in the past, ie The Invisible Man, you may be ready for this one to have a turn. While the film does have some good elements to it, and some interesting things that happen, the back and forth from ultra slow to ultra exciting back to ultra slow real quick doesn't help this film move in a way for the audience to enjoy.
Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte, fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger.
But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.
While the film starts off interesting, and you question where we are going, it quickly slows down so we can have some time to develop the characters. The problem is we are too slowed down, and we take too long to develop something the audience can already understand. We then have some excitement and action that picks up the pacing, but then it is slowed down again while we take more time to develop what's going on.
There are some really cool elements to this film. We get to see how the Wolf Man sees and hears, and we learn things about the Wolf Man himself as Wolf Man. This is something you're going to want to see more of, but the film only uses it to showcase, then we are quickly back outside the Wolf Man.
Watching a transformation was a cool element as well. I'm glad we did get to explore this, and we then felt for the Wolf Man and understood the hard choices the family had to make, sometimes as a family or sometimes against the family.
Christopher Abbott knows how to portray a Wolf Man. He will make you feel attached and like you are losing your own mind with him. He brings it well on screen and makes you question things as well. Julia Garner was also great in her role as the wife/mother. She's that distant mom at first, but then her character comes around, and you feel the emotions as well.
With a really low runtime, you would think this film would fly fast, but it does not. There are times the movie seems slow and long, but the film itself is not. The pacing is one of the big issues you'll have, as when it picks up, it picks up, but then when it's slow, it really does move slowly and takes its time.
As long as you have a huge bucket of popcorn, then you may be in for a decent film that doesn't scare you and doesn't feel as long. But without popcorn to chew on during the slowly developing parts of the film, you may think your own teeth are falling out with how long you are sitting there.
WOLF MAN is in Theaters January 17th, 2025.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5
Billy Joynt (Editor) - Billy has seen many movies over the years. He enjoys comedies and anything action, including the summer blockbuster movies. You can follow Billy on Twitter here.Click Here to check out Billy's Articles.