Movie Review: Wolf Man (2025)

Wolf Man (2025) co-written and directed by Leigh Whannell

Blake (Christopher Abbott) has a difficult relationship with his father Grady (Sam Jaeger). As a child thirty years ago, Grady would go hunting around their remote Oregon farm. The area has a legend of a lost hitchhiker who succumbed to a disease and went feral. Grady's harsh hunting methods alienated Blake, who is now living in San Francisco with his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). Charlotte is a moderately successful journalist; Blake is also a writer but is between jobs and is a stay-at-home dad for Ginger. The couple has some tension between them. Then the letter comes--Blake's missing dad has finally been declared dead and he inherits the Oregon farm. Blake takes the family to sort out the remaining possessions and have a break from city life. They rent a moving truck and drive into the woods. Becoming lost, Blake stops by a deer blind and talks to the hunter there. He's a local who remembers Blake and offers to guide them the rest of the way to the farm. Darkness falls as they drive. Blake swerves to miss some person standing in the road, leading to a wreck. They have a harrowing confrontation with a semi-human being who scratches Blake before the family makes it to the abandoned farmhouse. Things fall apart from there.

The movie shares a lot from other werewolf stories as Blake transforms. He starts losing his humanity, unable to understand their speech and unable to control some of his actions. The situation grows worse. Technology is of no help for the characters, with no cell reception and a wonky generator providing electricity for the farm buildings. The tension builds early with the truck wreck and does not let up until the very end of the film. Director Whannell keeps things tense with minimal dialogue and explanations. The movie is very physical and very visceral, with a lot of gore (more than I thought was necessary). Blake's appearance does not quite get wolfish even though his behavior is very wolfish. His moral quandary is interesting and sympathetic, though by the end I wanted to feel more for him than I did. Part of the problem is the leanness of the script that only gives enough backstory to set up the situation, not enough to fully invest in the characters. 

Mildly recommended--this is exciting and scary but relies a little too much on gore and not enough on character. 

Movie Review: The Invisible Man (2020)

 The Invisible Man (2020) written and directed by Leigh Whannell

Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) is literally trapped in a horrible marriage. Her husband Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is manipulative, possessive, and a brilliant scientist. Their California seaside estate has a tall wall around it. As the movie starts, Cecilia sneaks away in the middle of the night, shutting down the security cameras and heading over the fence to a rendezvous with her younger sister Emily (Harriet Dyer). As Cecilia leaves the garage, their dog bangs into the car, setting off the car alarm. Her race to the road is just barely successful. The movie jumps two weeks later. Cecilia is hiding out with a friend of her sister. Emily comes by and tells her that Adrian committed suicide. The sisters visit the executor of Adrian's estate, his brother Tom (Michael Dorman), who explains that Cecilia will inherit five million dollars in monthly installment of one hundred thousand dollars as long as she is not charged with any crimes and is mentally competent. She's happy about that, though still paranoid about Adrian's influence over her life. Odd things start happening to her, making her think that Adrian is still alive and invisibly torturing her. Everyone else thinks she is going crazy.

The movie does a good job for the first third leaving viewers in suspense about whether Adrian is really alive and messing around with her. Tom does have a box with Adrian's alleged ashes. So maybe Tom is trying to keep the money by torturing her? Whoever is causing her problems doesn't need to put a lot of effort in since she is already skittish about almost everything. Also, her judgment is naive, like when she promises to set aside money for the friend's daughter as a college fund just to be nice. Cecilia grows less and less passive throughout the film, a nice build up of her character. The story has some good twists and tense scenes. The special effects are top-notch and the ending is typical and satisfying.

Recommended--I went into this with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised more than once during the movie.