“These classic monsters are durable, you can make them contemporary,” said Wolf Man director Leigh Whannell at the 2024 New York Comic Con on Friday, October 18th. At this point, Whannell is a horror veteran that you’ve most likely seen but not realized how integral he was to their creation. For example, he wrote the 2004 classic Saw and played one of the main characters Adam. And he wrote the 2010 movie Insidious while also playing the character Spcs. He has continued to work on the following sequels within both franchises. And now he’s returning to Blumhouse since writing the 2020 horror movie The Invisible Man.
At NYCC, Blumhouse had their BlumFest panel, which is the annual October celebration of all things Blumhouse. Jason Blum, the CEO of Blumhouse, revealed plans for Blumhouse’s 15th anniversary in 2025 with the world premiere of the trailer for Wolf Man, first-look footage from Christopher Landon’s Drop, Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Woman in the Yard, and a look at the highly-anticipated M3GAN 2.0. And as someone who loves horror and thinks that we need more werewolf stories, Wolf Man is delivering horror, the fragility of familial bonds, and tough choices for a mother who wants to save her husband but also protect her child.
Starring Julia Garner, Christopher Abbott, and Matilda Firth, the official trailer opens up with an accident. And just when they think that things couldn’t get worse, something attacks one of the passengers and the father Blake. He ushers his wife Charlotte and Ginger to the safety of a home nearby. And while he tries his best to protect them from the monster outside, it becomes clear quickly that the family also needs to worry about the monster inside. Because Blake has been scratched by this wolf man they encountered. And he’s losing control quicker than anyone expected.
Personally, Wolf Man looks interesting. It’s spooky, dark, tense, and looks like it’s got quite a few jump scares. But after watching the Kit Harrington movie The Beast Within, this movie looks a little too similar. That movie had a mother also protecting her child in a secluded location as her husband turned into a beast. And the confrontation, the running through the woods, and car scene are similar visual elements to The Beast Within. We understand that there’s only so much you can do in the middle of nowhere with one of your own family members transforming, but we do wish they’d shaken it up. Make the mother the one attacked. Make it the child.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re still going to watch Wolf Man. But we wish revisiting classic monsters didn’t remind us so much The Beast Within, a movie we JUST watched and reviewed only a couple months ago.
Watch the official trailer for Wolf Man below:
Wolf Man hits theaters on January 17, 2025.
