The director of the 2020 The Invisible Man reboot has some thoughts about wolfing out sprinkled with too many red herrings.

Still affected having endured his militant father’s code of conduct while growing up, writer Blake (Christopher Abbot) has become a stay-at-home dad raising his daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). Blake’s wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) pays the bills through her journalism job, but the couple have grown apart as Blake deals with his anger issues, and he’s genuinely concerned and frustrated with himself. An opportunity to reboot their affections and put the past behind them comes when Blake’s missing father is declared legally dead, leaving the isolated wilderness family home of his childhood waiting to be packed away. Unfortunately, the husk of a survivalist’s home isn’t the only thing waiting in the woods for him…

Let’s address the Universal Monster in the room: there’s something wolfish in the state of Oregon. Written and directed by Leigh Whannell and co-written by Corbett Tuck, the story seeks to reinterpret this classic creature in the same way the 2020 The Invisible Man left the old versions behind. Through whatever means, the beast is being brought to the surface to replace the man; these tragic stories hinge on if there’s even a man left to save, like in the classic 1941 The Wolf Man with Claude Rains. With a limited cast isolated in a remote area with time running out for everyone, who will have to make the decision to save them all and at what cost… and will it be any better than the disappointing 2010 The Wolfman?

An American Werewolf in London was clearly a story inspiration; the lead actors even resemble one another as does some of the practical transformation. Clocking in at a tight ninety minutes, Wolf Man wastes no time getting to what fans want but seems to hint at more than comes to fruition. We see a man devolving (or evolving) into something primal and beastlike, suffering through everything he’s losing but more afraid of what he’ll do once the transformation is complete. Wolf Man explores this deeply as Charlotte bears witness, changing points of view within the same scene to show Blake’s perception of becoming something inhuman. There’s an “overprotective overbearing dad” bit countered with a “you’ll understand when you have kids” angle, but the film leaves a hollow feeling that something important was inexplicably cut out.

To the production’s credit, the atmosphere and soundscape were on-point, coupled with practical body horror VFX; the director has pointed to John Carpenter’s The Thing and David Cronenberg’s The Fly as inspiration. The revisited wilderness setting was already a place of apprehension to Blake within the story, but once things begin to go awry, it’s Charlotte who has to figure out what to with the little she’s got in the house to protect her family with. In addition to an interesting wolf-vision effect, this is the kind of sound editing that wins awards, hinting at far more than visuals can foreshadow. During an early encounter, a tone can be heard at a distance, suggesting a whistle-like control might be in use; what happens immediately afterward suggests it isn’t our imagination, but it’s one of several misdirections or dropped clues that is never explored further. If it’s nothing, why can it be heard, and why was there a reaction? Who used it? Are there more of these things? What the hell is actually going on?

Perhaps it isn’t fair to assume something was held back, but after the military implications and involvement regarding The Invisible Man, an opening title card with hints of local legends coupled with veterans policing their neck of the woods feels more like a watch post than a homestead. Aliens? “The X-Files?” Dog Soldiers? The ambiguous ending screams for a post-credit scene to answer at least some of the huge questions asked, but it’s frustratingly nowhere to be found, and that undermines the entire production.

Wolf Man is rated R for bloody violent content, grisly images, some language, and whomever sold Charlotte that outfit as appropriately “woodsy.”

Two skull recommendation out of four