Disappointing Wolf Man Is No Howler
Wolf Man is exactly what it says on the tin. It is a movie about a man that is also a wolf. Through opening text we are told we are in Oregon, a hiker has gone missing, and he was presumed to have “hill fever” or as the native tribe referred to it “the man with the face of the wolf.” There is a cold open about a young boy and his father going hunting, seeing what is presumably the hiker and then it cuts to present day and we are introduced to our main character Blake (played by Chris Abbott) and his daughter. He is a doting father but seems to have a little bit of a temper — initially I assumed much like how Invisible Man is about the corrupting influence of anonymity, perhaps Wolf Man would be allegorical for his temper but no. Blake is just a guy with a lot on his plate and he’s working on it.
Shortly after this his wife, Charlotte, arrives back at their (stunningly gorgeous, way too expensive for an out of work writer and print journalist) apartment. Here we find out that his father (seen in the cold open) has officially been declared dead after going missing in the woods where they saw the Wolf Man back in the ’90s. In an attempt to reconnect with his wife, they decide to all go to the remote house in Oregon to clean it out together and have a nice summer. In a move surprising no one this revelry is interrupted by a Wolf Man, who scratches Blake’s arm, and he starts getting “sick.” His physical transformation is gnarly, and the way they cover his change in vision and perspective is an interesting party trick but not enough to hinge two thirds of the movie on.
The biggest problem I had with this movie is that it was fairly generic and predictable. The second note I made in the film (approximately 5 minutes after the film started) wound up being a correct guess of the “twist.” The movie introduces quite a lot of ideas that it doesn’t invest in.
The crux of this movie is watching a man get sick, having gross symptoms and knowing there is nothing to be done that can help him. It’s not scary. It’s sad.
I give Wolf Man (Universal Pictures; R; 1 hr 43 mins) a 2 out of 5.
