a horror film with fangs?

At the time of great shared universe ambitions, Universal wanted to bring together the legendary monsters around Tom Cruise. A time when the overly greedy studio was already producing a heralding family portrait with, in particular, Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man. A few years and a franchise smothered under a pillow later, Universal continues to resurrect these monsters, but this time, without a shared universe and with the expertise of Blumhouse at the helm. Which gave us a very solid Invisible Man in 2020, modern rereading by Leigh Whannell. It’s almost no surprise to see him direct a second creature from the seventh art, the werewolf, with the same inspiration. And thus Wolf Man was born.

A father living in San Francisco, Blake (Christopher Abbott) inherits his father’s old farm, lost in the depths of Oregon, following the official announcement of his father’s death. And while his relationship is more fragile than ever, Blake jumps at the opportunity to spend a few weeks there with his wife (Julia Garner) and his little daughter (Matilda Firth) in order to reunite the family. As soon as they arrive, they will be attacked by a unknown creature. Barricaded in the house, will they survive this night, while Blake, injured, begins to transform?

With an icon of horror cinema as a subject, was it still possible to reinvent her while films and series have multiplied? Since his first appearance in 1913, the werewolf has claimed countless lives, played basketball, visited London, fought Dracula, fallen in love with Kate Beckinsale, helped Buffy, and made his life at home. campus. Even Jack Nicholson played him! Suffice to say that to reinvent the myth, Whannell had to be very inspired.

A great idea…

We can say that the mission was, for the most part, successful. The director and co-writer, alongside Corbett Tuck, decided to be less interested in the animal than in the metamorphosis. It is necessary, moreover, salute the hard work of the makeup team on the prosthetics. Blake’s transformation progresses slowly enough that his physical appearance changes in small increments. A visual treatment that functions as a pleasant note of intention.

Where Invisible Man used the monster to describe the mechanisms of control and manipulation, Wolf Man is a portrait of a couple who no longer communicate, of paternal love. A family unit in crisis whose faults and strengths will be physically embodied on screen. The feature film does not fail to have some great staging ideas around its narrative plane, as when the camera changes point of view between the human gaze and that of the animal, Blake and his family now evolving in two different realities. It is not always done well, but it must be recognized that the initiative is good.

Whannell will play with the creation of the werewolf, helped by the interpretation of Christopher Abbott, by leading the beast to take control of man through the alternation of shocking scenes and more nuanced effects. In the first, Wolf Man there obviously finds its most horrific dimension between gory passages and oppressive atmosphere. In the discreet details, we better appreciate Abbott’s talent for physically playing the wolf through bodily collapse or development of the sense of smell.

…for a wolf-ed result?

Everything we have said above may suggest that Wolf Man is another Whannell success story. However, it would be interesting to know the part of the man and that of Blumhouse in the final result. Because if, between the lines, the film has a beautiful project, the rendering strongly smacks of the influence of the production company. And that’s not a compliment.

Let’s be clear, the Blumhouse label is not a fault as such and Jason Blum’s company has produced nuggets of horror cinema like Insidious, Black Phone or Fée Despite Himself. But it also gave birth to a “Blumhouse model” which also consisted of investing little in projects with maximum profitability, like the saga Paranormal Activity. Which, with the years, the experience acquired and the cumulative successes, opened the Pandora’s box of algorithmic creation.

In short, Blumhouse produces a lot and does not necessarily treat all its projects in the same way since in any case, almost every film will find its audience – as the very average Five Nights at Freddy’s recently proved. Yes, Blumhouse is to horror cinema what Netflix is ​​to streaming production : too often a soulless catalog filler.

If the subject is brought up here, it is because despite his good ideas, Wolf Man too often tends to find its way back to the easy object of terror. The monster lurking in the shadows, the jumpscares here and there, the music to build tension… In each scene where the horror film reasserts its rights to the concept, we know what is going to happen because each production like does exactly the same thing. This does not make it any less effective, because everything agrees to make it workbut this nip in the bud any attempt to make the thing original.

Anyone who has seen more than three recent horror films will have fun or annoyance guessing each sequence in advance, Wolf Man taking a route that is oh so marked without subtlety. As if Whannell had come up with his concept and a few camera shots, but everything else had been left to an autopilot applying his manual.

A manual that does not hesitate to abandon plot elements along the way if they do not integrate the basic outline. We think of certain secondary roles or the presumption of a hidden character suggested in the preamble. Which is frustrating since, just like his Invisible Man, Whannell proves that we could still write something new about the werewolf. Nevertheless, his creativity seems to have hit the wall of economic reality in the process, making Wolf Man and footage designed to find its audiencefill Universal’s coffers a little, then simply join the Blumhouse catalog. Some will say it’s not so bad.

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