This weekend marks the debut of director/writer Leigh Whannell’s second entry in rebooting Universal’s famed monsters, “Wolf Man.” Based on the 1941 feature starring Claude Rains and Lon Chaney, Jr., Whannell’s new take on the character is a story of generational trauma and abuse involving a man named Blake (Christopher Abbott) who takes his wife and daughter to visit his family home in Oregon. The trio are soon set upon by a mysterious creature and when Blake is bit he starts to transform into someone (or something) that isn’t him.
“Wolf Man” holds commonalities with Whannell’s first dive into Universal’s monster waters, the 2020 remake of “The Invisible Man.” Both films explore romantic relationships between a couple and how abuse manifests itself in different ways to create trauma that doesn’t disappear once the relationship ends. In “Wolf Man,” the viewer meets Blake’s wife Charlotte (Julia Garner), a journalist more content to spend time on the phone with her editor than bonding with her husband and daughter. It’s clear her marriage to Blake is crumbling, and though he sees the trip as a way for them all to be together, Charlotte is more concerned that she has no ability to bond with her child at all.
