Family drama gets hairy in the WOLF MAN trailer

In my humble opinion, werewolf films are notoriously difficult to get right. Are the titular creatures just mindless beasts like in? An American werewolf in London? Maybe a hippie death cult as in The howling? Or are they secretly a good guy as in Werewolf at night? One aspect of werewolf history that is almost always carried over is the idea that lycanthropy is a curse. This comes to light at Blumhouse Wolfmanthe second reimagining of the Universal Monsters directed by Leigh Whannell. The first was in 2020 The invisible mandon’t you know. In the first full trailer, a beast claws a father (Christopher Abbott) and his wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth) must contend with his deteriorating health. It is portrayed like a disease or plague. But still terrifying.

After the incredibly epic collapse of the barely constructed Dark Universe and his only appearance, The mummy In 2017, Universal backed out of its plan to retell its classic monsters on a big budget. Enter Blumhouse, who used their brand of higher concept, lower budget horror The invisible man. Under Leigh Whannell, the property took on themes such as spousal abuse and gaslighting with a sci-fi twist. It proved incredibly popular during COVID times.

Wolfman will be a different beast, pardon the pun. Werewolves, as I said, are difficult to pull off effectively, and it seems like Whannell is trying to use the typical setup to tell a similar family dynamic in danger. We don’t even know if this movie will feature a werewolf, according to Hoyle. Anyway, I’m very intrigued by it, especially when you involve actors of Garner and Abbott’s caliber.

What puzzles me a little is the release date. January 17, 2024. Blumhouse’s January 2024 release was used as a comparison Night swimmingstill one of the worst of the year. I guess we’ll see!

Kyle Anderson is the senior editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and television reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.